ALUS, which was originally an acronym for Alternative Land Use Services, has entered into a partnership with General mills to deliver content that will support farmers and regenerative agriculture in the province.

General Mills invested $2.3 million into the organization, with that specifically heading towards its Growing Roots pilot program.

As a part of that deal, ALUS is committing to advance regenerative agriculture on one million acres of farmland by 2030, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain over the next eight years, and ultimately achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Lara Ellis, the senior vice president of policy and partnership, says their work involves working together with farmers to adopt best practices for those working the land.

"We work to restore, enhance and conserve nature on farms and ranches. At the core of our program is the understanding that farmers are excellent stewards, they know their land, and they have the skills, so it's important to place them at the heart of the sort of programming that we do which is stewardship-focused and around protecting biodiversity, water quality, and the quantity and also mitigating climate change."

Their new Growing Roots program will be a bit of a change for the organization, as that'll take them directly into farmer's fields.

"Growing Roots is a new program at ALUS, its pilot program. The support from General mills will support two years of work. We actually started the program this spring, so there are projects in the ground. Most of Alus's work to date has been on marginal land and putting nature back, whereas this program is very much around regenerative agriculture programs on fields."

Ellis praises the community involvement, saying that those leaders have been instrumental in the multiple programs they've put on with ALUS.

"Our program can only run with strong community and farmer support. each of our 35 community programs has a local partner, they are very important for the administration of the program. Then, of course, our program is led at the community level by farmer and rancher leaders."