"This is an unregulated market and you know military guys right, they like not having this overarching theme. Regulation will add value to this space, but right now, it’s an unregulated and non-voluntary market, which is different from other countries being mandated to participate."

The quote from our guest this week, James Clement, is referring to the carbon credit market. He’s honest about the wild west nature of the space right now, but also realistic about the benefits certain regulation could bring.

James is a seasoned rancher and innovative leader in agtech, currently serving as Senior Vice President of Grass and Rangeland at EarthOptics. James’s family have nearly 400 years of combined family ranging experience, including operations like Beggs Cattle Co and King Ranch. He also founded his own cattle company in Kingsville, TX called Bloody Buckles Cattle Co, a hat tip to the 28th Army Division. James is currently still in the Marine Corps reserves with more than 17 years of service.

Like most competitive brothers, James still wanted to join the Marines to follow his brother, but he enlisted in the reserves while his brother pursued the officer route through the Naval Academy. Fortunately or unfortunately, James ultimately ended up as a Marine officer, which set off one of the more interesting military careers I’ve heard of:

- Afghan deployment from 2012 - 2013

Have a listen as James and I weave our way through this fascinating military career and end up at his current position with EarthOptics. The work they’re doing with soil health monitoring and their use of a variety of different technologies to gather this data is quite differentiated in this space.

Enjoy!