Rose Marcario is the president and CEO of Patagonia. David Bronner is the CEO of Dr. Bronner's. The opinions expressed in this commentary are their own.

The United Nations released a dire warning recently: Climate change is here and it's a clear and present danger to our entire planet. Of course, we didn't need another report to tell us that — we see it in extreme and unusual weather, disappearing wildlife and falling farm yields. But there is one major cause of this global catastrophe that doesn't get the attention it deserves: industrial-scale chemical agriculture.

Reckless farming practices spurred by mega corporations, like clear-cutting forests and industrial-scale tilling — using machines to mix soil — release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. They also eliminate one of the best ways the earth naturally captures and stores carbon — sequestering it in plants and soil. This signals disaster for our food supply and our planet.

Patagonia and Dr. Bronner's are supporting an alternative that helps stop and even reverse some of this damage.

It turns out that the traditional and responsible farming practices humans used for centuries before the rise of chemical agriculture are some of the best methods we can use to protect ourselves and the planet. It's what we now call regenerative organic farming and it's back-to-basics: Instead of using excessive amounts of fertilizers in vast single-crop fields, farmers can diversify and rotate crops, compost, plant cover crops and reduce tillage. Ranchers should raise animals that are grass-fed and free of antibiotics, added hormones and pesticides in their feed, and live free of cruel confinement conditions and the daily suffering inherent in life on factory farms.

Researchers at the Rodale Institute say that if all farms and ranches globally used regenerative organic agriculture techniques, 100% of the world's carbon emissions could be recaptured into the soil within the first year. In other words, this could literally save the world. And over time, as chemically degraded soil starts to come back to life, crop yields from regenerative organic agriculture can outperform conventional methods, meaning we can feed a growing global population without destroying the planet.

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