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The Answer is Healthy Soil
The Berlin start-up Klim is forging an alliance between farmers and companies. The aim is to use regenerative farming to remove CO2 from the atmosphere – and sequester it as carbon in the soil. For this, the digital platform offers documentation and financing options for regenerative measures, as well as access to knowledge and a community. An interview with Nina Mannheimer.
The journey to a large field full of winter wheat begins on the second floor of a Berlin townhouse, and it only takes a click. A satellite image appears on the screen, with an area marked on it. "Welcome to my test farm," says Nina Mannheimer. The interior of the former apartment doesn't look agricultural: a large conference table, behind it two rooms with seven computer workstations each; four soundproof booths in the hallway, in between bouquets of flowers ("from the last pizza party") in front of light brown wallpaper - this mixture of retro style and hipster is home to a start-up that is currently starting a small revolution in German agriculture: Scaling up regenerative agriculture and letting farmers earn extra money with it. How is that supposed to work?
Nina Mannheimer, co-founder and Chief Product Officer (CPO) of "Klim", smiles silently for a moment at the question. Why is she spending so much time in the office and less time in her clients' fields? Klim is growing - the start-up, which was founded in August 2020 and currently has 55 employees, is currently looking for "Klimanians" for 17 vacancies. "Soil has huge potential to store CO2 - we are making agriculture part of the solution," she says.
This is also necessary. Globally, agriculture contributes to a quarter of all emissions. At the same time, farmers are among the quickest who feel the consequences of climate change: harvests are becoming less reliable and leaner; in Germany alone, which is not yet a climate change hotspot like other regions, extreme weather events lead to agricultural losses of over six billion euros. But there is another figure to counter this. 2.5 billion tons - according to the Thünen Institute, this is how much carbon is stored on agricultural land in Germany. This store is a treasure. Preserving and increasing it seems to be an active contribution to climate protection; the less carbon escapes from the soil and the more it can absorb, the better. "It is no longer enough to focus solely on reducing emissions," says Mannheimer, 29. "We are so far behind the climate targets that we simply have to get the carbon out of the atmosphere - including by storing it in our soils."
She demonstrates how this works on the computer. Klim is basically a digital toolbox that the company puts in the hands of farmers. Which ones? "All of them," laughs Mannheimer. "We want to scale up and reach out to everyone. Conventional and Demeter farmers work with us. It's about better soil. That helps the climate and stabilizes crop yields. Who wouldn't want that?" So she clicks a button on the screen. "To my farm", it says. With the help of the uploaded EU agricultural application, which every farmer submits, every cultivated field becomes visible. "What do you want to work on?" the next button asks and suggests: Crop rotation, fertilizers, soil processing & sowing and plant protection products are all levers that can be used to improve soil quality, promote humus build-up - and thus the ability to absorb more carbon.
"But first we need to take stock," says Mannheimer, typing in what and how the 14.74 hectares have been cultivated so far in her demonstration for one field. "Initial scenario: 35.7 tons of CO2," answers the screen; this is the average amount emitted. "Can be improved," mumbles Mannheimer. She adds that the next winter wheat harvest will leave some residue on the field and that a catch crop, a green cover, will also be planted to loosen up the soil. The climate toolbox promptly calculates a range of 664 euros to 1200.79 euros. The farmer would receive this for his climate protection measures in the field. From whom? "We have two areas," says Mannheimer. "On the one hand, we work with companies such as food corporations that would like to save six tons of carbon in their supply chains, let's say for wheat, for example." The farmer producing for them acts in partnership with Klim - and the company pays 50 euros for every ton saved; two thirds of this goes directly to the farmer. In the second area, farmers who are not involved in a direct supply chain can sell their reductions as certificates to others.
We are so far behind the climate targets that we simply have to get the carbon out of the atmosphere - including by storing it in our soils.
Klim checks the work in the field using international climate models that utilize scientific data, soil samples and weather documentation. Klim evaluates satellite images, looks at the EU application and invoices and visits the fields in person if necessary. The math behind all this is straightforward: every action has an effect. Minimizing tillage, expanding crop rotations, growing catch crops and allowing more green spaces increases the nutrient efficiency of the soil, which in turn requires fewer pesticides. What Klim is aiming for is a win-win situation. "Farmers get healthier soil, resulting in more stable yields and an additional payment through CO2 savings," says Mannheimer. "In other words, a clear conscience and an improved operating balance."
The question remains as to why agroecology is not fully supported by Klim right away. "We are not anti-organic," she replies, "but time is pressing and we offer an approach that can be integrated and scaled up quickly." Thirty years ago, it was predicted that half of all agriculture would be organic by today, "but that hasn't happened". However, the need for action on CO2 remains unaffected. "We are offering a way forward." You could say that Klim is taking a realistic approach, taking farmers from where they are. "Anyone who built a new barn for 100,000 euros five years ago is not going to rely solely on oat milk from one day to the next." According to Mannheimer, she is interested in the smart integration of animals.
Time is pressing and we offer an approach that can be integrated and scaled up quickly.
Mannheimer talks quickly, gesticulating with her hands. Sometimes she looks into the distance, then the visionary comes very close. Her sentences are filled with English words; she studied Economics and War Studies at King's College in London. "Back then, I didn't have agriculture and climate change on my mind," she smiles. At the end of her school years, the financial crisis dominated the agenda, as did the fear of losing jobs; in her politics degree, she focused on other subjects such as conflict research.
In her biography, you can read that some things happened faster for her than for others. She founded a breakfast delivery service in London, created and transformed various brands at the Akqa agency and was an expert at the accommodation portal Airbnb. "I'm a bit impatient as a person," she says. And something was missing. She became aware of climate change. The conviction to do more grew. "Who wears which shoes, or whether someone travels a lot - these were results that became less important to me." You spend a relatively large amount of time working, "I want to use that for results that I can do something with".
She does not have an agricultural background. As a passionate cook, she was looking for sustainable vegetables with an intense flavor and was interested in permaculture. "But it didn't seem very scalable to me". She then came across the far more scalable topic of carbon storage via her topic of nutrient richness and taste. "My later co-founder Robert Gerlach had already started to deal with it analytically." The Oxford graduate, whom she had met through the investor Atlantic Food Labs, then came up with the idea of founding a company, and Mannheimer went along with it.
When the conversation ends, the large table no longer seems as deserted as it did at the beginning. People come into the hallway, sit down in the sound booths and plug in their laptops. More than 3,500 farmers are now registered on the platform, where they also make use of training and exchange opportunities - and the trend is rising. "Companies, farmers and society in general are slowly realizing," says Mannheimer, "that regenerative agriculture is an issue that is better addressed." Then the next appointment calls her.
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