Where is the highest potential impact in regenerative agriculture and food? Why landscapes, nutrient dense food and payment systems for farmers (and transition finance) will change the world?
At Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food, we’ve had the great privilege of interviewing over 400 pioneers—farmers, investors, entrepreneurs, scientists—exploring how to put money to work to regenerate soils, people, communities, and ecosystems, while also generating a fair return.
Since 2019, we’ve focused our attention on the areas within regenerative food and agriculture that we believe hold the highest potential for systemic impact.
In our view, these themes are especially relevant*, so we are giving voice to the doers working in these segments.
- Nutrient-Dense Food
Food that nourishes both people and the planet, starting with healthy soil. - Cooling the planet through Technology-Enabled Landscape Design and Water Cycles Restoration
Tools and data that support large-scale, ecologically sound land use decisions. Understanding and restoring water retention, infiltration, and distribution as central to landscape health. - Ecosystem Service Payments
Systems that reward farmers and land stewards for delivering clean water, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and other public goods. - Transition Finance
Capital structures that make it possible to fund the long, complex journey toward regeneration. - The Role of Animals
Integrating animals as essential participants in regenerative ecosystems, from grassland restoration to soil fertility. - Land ownership
Land ownership is a barrier to regenerative managed landscapes. If yes, what are ways to fix that?
Nutrient dense food and Diet Change
How to make the nutrient differences visible in regenerative food
Research show that there’s is a strong link between healthy soils, healthy produce, healthy gut and healthy people. How this can shift the behaviour of consumers and investors? And thus will it revolutionise the food and agro industry
How can diet change (towards a more regenerative fueling diet) help the regen revolution?
While processed and ultra processed are invading more and more our daily diets (in the parts of the world where abundance of food isn’t a problem), the urgency of a diet change is more clear than ever.
Cooling the planet through Technology enabled landscape design and Water Cycles restoration
Technology is needed to take regenerative agriculture to the watershed, ecosystem level
What to plant where and why? Taking into account climate models for the next 20 years, indigenous knowledge, market circumstances and much more.
Restoring water cycles has a key role in cooling the planet
Bring back the marches, the mangroves, the perennial pastures with trees and regrow real forests that can bring back rains in strategic places.
Payment systems for carbon, water storage and biodiversity in healthy soils
Payment systems: farmers paid for biodiversity, water storage and carbon storage
Paying enough for good nutrient rich food isn’t enough for the huge transition needed.
Blockchain, and maybe markets, are ready to pay for water storage, biodiversity and co2 storage?
Transition Finance
Transition Finance to finance this huge transition
How funds and investment vehicles are stepping in to finance these transitions in companies and on farms. Looking at Climate Bonds, Green Bonds, new funds, vehicles blended finance, crowdlending /funding etc. More and more fund managers and investors are seeing the potential of soil. We need more ways to put all of these money to work!
Land ownership
You can’t address food security, soil carbon sequestration or climate change without first- or at the same time- tackling the crisis of land access
Is private land ownership a barrier to regenerative managed landscapes? And if yes what are ways to fix that?
*Other topics- not less important- on which we are focus our attention as well.
- Farmers first tech and software
Using all this information to get practical daily decisions at the farmer level - Return nutrients to the soil
Circular economy, new developments in composting, biochar, insect fertiliser, seaweed all to speed up the regeneration of soil - Protein discussion
From how alternative proteins (soy, oat, almonds) are grown and could serve the restoration of ecosystems to how insects, chickens, pigs are generating proteins and fertiliser from food waste. - Short chains/food webs de-commodify food giants
Making sure that farmers get paid fairly for producing amazing food full of nutrients