The Story of Reseed: Building the Future of Agricultural Carbon Credits

In 1996, Josh Knauer launched one of the first e-commerce platforms for natural products, well before organic certification existed in the United States. “We had to build out a set of methodologies that would allow the community to actually define the values and standards that they cared about,” he explains in a recent Category Visionaries episode. This early experience with community-driven standards would shape his approach to his latest venture, Reseed.

After selling his first company and later founding and exiting Risa (acquired by Nielsen in 2017), Josh identified a striking market inefficiency in carbon credits. “Less than 1%, in fact, it’s 0.03% of carbon credits on the market today come from farming or agriculture in any form,” he notes. This gap was particularly concerning given that there are 600 million family farms worldwide, with most farmers living at or below poverty level.

The problem went deeper. “The majority of carbon credits currently in the marketplace actually come from fossil fuel based activities,” Josh reveals. This counterintuitive reality meant that the very industries contributing to climate change were the primary beneficiaries of carbon credit markets.

Reseed’s solution was to create a platform connecting farmers with carbon credit markets. The company provides farmers with an app to harvest data from their land, which is then converted into carbon credits and other products that corporations, governments, and individuals need to achieve climate goals.

Unlike many climate tech companies focusing on complex mechanical solutions, Reseed emphasizes practical approaches working with existing farming communities. “We have literally billions of hands in farmers that can be put to use to solve this problem. They want to do it as extra income, wildly incentivized to actively participate in this market,” Josh explains.

The company has already achieved significant traction, with “well over 10,000 farmers that are participating and collecting data.” But Josh’s vision extends far beyond current numbers. “Our goal within a year or two is to be working with tens of millions of farmers,” he states.

Looking ahead, Josh sees ecosystem services becoming a major asset class for investors. “We are working right now with financing vehicles… that are basically starting to use our carbon credits as the base asset of their funds and are projecting… twelve to 15% to 20% annual returns for their investors.” The logic is compelling: “You’re investing in the thing that’s going to save your life. And that’s a pretty strong argument.”

More fundamentally, Josh believes Reseed can help prevent a looming crisis. The UN estimates that between 2030 and 2050, up to a billion people could become climate refugees, many from farming communities. By helping farmers stay on their land while contributing to climate solutions, Reseed aims to address both environmental and social challenges simultaneously. It’s a vision that shows how mission-driven companies can create value while tackling some of humanity’s most pressing problems.