A Man Working for His Family, Company, and Planet

Ted Barber, or my father, is a man that nobody knows who is working on issues people

should know about. He works for Danone, a B corp and one of the largest dairy/ food producers

in the world. But before we get into what he is doing as a Danone, we need to know how he got

there: "So, my name is Ted Barber… I [have] about a 30-year career in product innovation

working as a mechanical engineer on everything." And he means everything; I remember him

working for toy companies to outdoor and sport wear companies throughout my childhood. But

he has more that he can tell about: "From implantable medical devices,… and automotive

designs, to scientific devices for you know measuring human metabolism." After all this, he's

been working at Danone North America for three years as the head of open innovation.

Within his job, he finds new ways for Danone to steer and what new technologies they

should invest their resources in, which I personally wouldn't want to do. This is because Danone

is ranked as the fourth largest food company in the world, worth around 27.66 billion euros or

about 30.41 billion dollars. (Shahbandah). As head of open innovation, Ted has a few different

projects he's working on, but the main two that he likes the most and feels matter the most are

his work with regenerative agriculture and his work with methane capture systems on cows.

What is regenerative agriculture, though? Well-regenerative agriculture is a set of practices in

agriculture that helps the soil recover and be healthier, leading to a better climate profile and

crop conditions. Some of these practices include no-till practices and cover crop planting.
 Above is a great example of both no-till practices and cover crop planting. Within

conventional farming, the soil gets tilled, and soil is turned over to loosen it up, leading to many

of the microorganisms in the soil getting killed. This is what Ted had to say about no-till farming:

"So, part of it is maintaining the microorganisms… that live in the soil… [They] provide the plants

with other nutrients that they need whether it's minerals or vitamins." But that's not all. It can

also help with a problem many Californians found out with this winter higher than average rain:

"The second part of it is that as those microorganisms and small organisms are moving through

the soil, their bodies are accumulating carbon, and so it's actually building carbon into the soil

that does many things, but one of them it actually makes the soil more absorptive. So, water

doesn't run straight off and doesn't carry topsoil away... [Then] it can be used later into the

season, so you don't have to water as much during the summer." Which then helps with the
other problem near and dear to Californians' hearts: drought. But that's not all that's shown by

the image. The next part of regenerative agriculture that's shown in the picture is the planting

of cover crops. Cover crops protect the soil, too but in a different way. Instead of leaving the

topsoil barren throughout the off-season, a different low-maintenance plant is used to cover the

ground. This prevents the soil from being blown away and protects it from being baked by the

sun throughout the off-season. By doing this, the soil is in a better condition for when the

growing season comes, meaning healthier crops. On top of protecting the soil, cover crops also

turn into compost of sorts for the next growing season. The way these two practices work

together is simple. After the harvest, a cover crop is planted and left until the next growing

season. When the growing season comes, the cover crop is flattened low to the ground so that

it doesn't fight the actual crop but still protects the soil. Then a seed drill is used to bore into the

soil to loosen it for a seed to be planted. Then the cycle can be repeated with greater efficiency

than conventional farming practices.

The other project Ted talked about was his project involving methane capture and

recycling systems on dairy cow barns. Methane is a greenhouse gas produced by many livestock

and is worse than carbon dioxide for the environment. So, my father has been working on a

system to capture and reuse the gas for benefits instead