Why You Should Care About Soil Health

What’s one big change we can make that can make our food healthier, make farming more lucrative, draw down carbon in the atmosphere, and reduce climate emigration?That’s today’s big question, and my guest is Sasankh Munukutla. Sasankh is the Co-Founder of Terradot, a satellite and AI-based gigaton-scale, soil-carbon sequestration verification system.Sasankh originally hails from Singapore and grew up across countries as a third-culture kid and a future global citizen attending international schools. Before college, Sasankh took two gap years and served as a Commander in the Singapore Armed Forces. Once at Stanford, he completed his undergraduate degree in Computer Science with distinction as a Terman Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, and with the Stanford Award of Excellence.So, you know.As you’ll hear, Sasankh is deeply passionate and thoughtful about the intersection of technology and social impact. He’s worked in the refugee space, on accessibility, and is a major force for organizing in the tech for good space. Something we can all get behind.Here’s the deal:Globally, soil has the potential to sequester up to 1.85 gigatons of carbon per year but soil degradation threatens our ability to feed a growing population, and soil desertification will result in 135 million soil refugees by 2050. Fun!That’s where Sasankh and Terradot come in.For farmers, Terradot will incentivize adopting sustainable agricultural practices that sequester carbon, improve soil health, and enable participation in soil carbon credit markets.On the other side, for carbon buyers, Terradot can eventually provide high-integrity carbon removal credits while allowing them to verify and monitor the permanence of carbon removal – an essential piece of the puzzle.-----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at importantnotimportant.com/podcast.-----------INI Book Club:Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy KidderHow to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill GatesSpeed & Scale by John DoerrFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club<br/>Links:Follow Sasankh on TwitterConnect with Sasankh on LinkedInCheck out CS+ Social Good and Tech Shift<br/>Follow us:Subscribe to our ne