Steward is transforming agriculture by equipping regenerative farms & food producers with the capital they need to grow. Offering flexible financing and expert support services, agriculture businesses access the tools they need to scale their regenerative operations, improve the health of their lands, and bolster local food systems. But we don’t do it alone—our lending platform brings together a community of values-driven individuals who join in our mission by participating in lending campaigns that fuel this growth. Steward is proud to be a certified B Corp. Apply for a loan or lend support at gosteward.com Other ways to keep in the loop: Join the Steward Newsletter Get project announcements, farmer introductions, company updates, and more by subscribing to the Steward newsletter. Join our growing community of people who are making regenerative agriculture the foundation of our future. Sign up at gosteward.com Hear what others are saying about us: “Steward is putting capital into helping sustainable farms grow." - Civil Eats Featured in: Fast Company Wall Street Journal Bloomberg modern farmer Civil Eats
External link for Steward
Portland, Oregon 97206, US
Steward reposted this
Funding the Growth of Regenerative Agriculture | Founder & CEO at Steward | Co-Founder of Fundrise | Alternative Finance Expert | Follow for finance and farming discussions
Using insect larvae as sustainable fertilizer is exactly the type of business we like to fund. An explainer on Chapul Farms in the News-Register:
Well. It was a fun and frantic hour. You all came in fast and funded a $2,247,000.00 loan for Chapul Farms in a record-breaking 59 minutes. Thank you to Patrick and the team at Chapul for giving us such a worthy and innovative regenerative enterprise to support. Congratulations on your campaign. And thank you to everybody who participated in this loan campaign. It was a thrill to watch and an honor to take part. https://lnkd.in/eTZutM7X More to come! Stay tuned for forthcoming campaigns. #regenerativeagriculture #RFSI #stewardship
Steward reposted this
"You can't fix a broken food system with a broken financial system." I often use this quote from Robyn O'Brien and understand its truth in greater depth the longer I work at the intersection between the two. I am thrilled to announce our partnership with Steward Finance to help finance the next phase of Chapul Farms growth. Steward is at the forefront of addressing capital limitations of regenerative agriculture projects and it was refreshing to have regenerative principles actually embedded into our loan documentation. Our campaign is launching today at 12pm/3pm PT/ET - fingers crossed!
"We turned concrete into gardens. We turned barren dirt into living soil. We told stories of living systems. Of symbiosis. And of revival." - Pat Crowley, CEO of Chapul Farms at Wings Conference 2024 Join us! We're launching a $2.2m participated loan campaign tomorrow, Friday, October 18th at 12pm PT / 3pm ET at https://hubs.ly/Q02TSZ7g0. You can support the innovation going on at Chapul Farms by making a loan as small as $100. Driven by a passion for innovation, regeneration, and holistic natural solutions, Chapul Farms is pioneering a zero-waste insect agriculture nutrient recycling facility. By harnessing the remarkable capabilities of Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL), Chapul's elegant system transforms discarded food waste into nutritious, organic high-protein livestock feed and premium-quality organic soil amendments—keeping waste out of landfills and promoting the regeneration of our natural resources. Chapul Farms recently secured a prestigious $3.9 million grant from the USDA's Fertilizer Production and Expansion Program. This loan from Steward will provide the upfront liquidity needed by Chapul to utilize grant funds to help acquire the site where Chapul's first commercial scale BSFL facility will be located. Join us in supporting the innovative work going on at Chapul Farms to recover wasted resources, reintroduce insects into their vital role in our food system, and produce natural organic soil fertilizers for other farms.
Just a reminder! We're launching a $2.2m loan campaign TODAY at 12pm PT / 3pm ET to support Chapul Farms and their incredible work using insect agriculture to close loops in our food system, recapture waste, and regenerate soil. Here's an inspiring video to watch to get you excited to support Chapul Farms. https://hubs.ly/Q02TSTFW0 Then, join us today at https://hubs.ly/Q02TTjtv0 to make a loan!
Steward reposted this
Published on the Sustainable Table Journal today, an article on recent USA adventures, canvassing key reflections from a range of conversations and encounters. 🌱From Montana to the Chesapeake Bay, the Tom Miner Basin to the Skagit Valley and across to Baltimore, spanning the work of Integrity Soils, Nicole Masters and Meagan Lannan, Malou Anderson-Ramirez, Cole Mannix and Old Salt Co-op, Dan Miller and the Steward team, Lisa Held and Civil Eats, through to Jonathan Bethony of Seylou, Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen and Kevin Morse of Cairnspring Mills. Some key gleanings include: 🌱The wonder of the way work of integrity, rooted in place, carries a force that is strong enough to travel, weave in and shape the work of far off people and landscapes all the way back home in Aus. 🌱How connecting the dots between these nodes of innovation threads together a deeper work of re-patterning underway in seemingly intractable systems. 🌱Gratitude for the gift of this growing yet far flung community and that the integrity of their work has travelled out to intersect, deepen and strengthen ours.
Thanks for the mention! Glad you were able to connect with Alissa and we look forward to the work ahead.
🌱 It has been exciting to watch the progress of leaders in the regenerative agriculture finance space over the past three years I have attended Regenerative Food Systems Investment. I learned of some inspiring collaborations on the bootcamp panel I moderated with Dirt Capital Partners, The Schmidt Family Foundation and Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT. I was inspired to see the progress of Mad Agriculture, Propagate, Terra Regenerative Capital and Steward . Some of these pioneers are working hard to reimagine finance to support farms and businesses like Tree-Range® Farms, Cate Havstad-Casad, Old Salt Co-op, Timeless Seeds and more. Attending this convening reminds me that changing our food system is possible, it is happening, and yet the circle of those doing the work is too small. 🚜 Meanwhile, far too many farms and brands entering the regenerative space are surviving, not thriving. How do we widen this circle of foundation and investment leaders to create a ripple effect throughout the food and fiber system, so more farms and food companies can thrive? We have creative investors and foundations working on various parts of the food system: infrastructure, land, CPG, and tech but not enough. What is missing is investment in the social infrastructure, or as I like to say, the mycelium that enables system-wide collaboration to support energy transfer and flow among all the parts. 🤝 One of the major themes echoed throughout the conference was collaboration. Yet, we don’t invest enough in the facilitators that enable that collaboration. Network weavers and conveners play a crucial role in fostering these connections and driving systemic change. Initiatives like the Soil & Climate Alliance focus on creating inclusive spaces for learning, connecting and growing through networks. These efforts are essential for building a resilient and sustainable food system. It is our collective success that matters most in this endeavor to produce food that will nurture our health in an equitable manner that restores the ecosystems of our planet. 🌾 My colleague Jeffrey Bos moderated a panel on the role of intermediaries and spoke about the work we do at the Soil & Climate Initiative (SCI) to support collaboration across the supply chain and provide farmer-centered transition support. If you didn’t get a chance to learn about our work, reach out to us—we would love to talk about how we can assist or register for our next virtual meeting of the Soil & Climate Alliance on Oct. 30th! Thanks to Sarah Day Levesque, Rachel Ringle and Bjorn Broekman for another stellar event. I enjoyed meeting and talking with so many of you including Patrick Smith Sami Tellatin Nicole Balderas Harriette Brainard Mai Ichihara Emmet McDonnell Alisa Knapp Tina Owens and more. #RegenerativeAgriculture #FoodSystems #Collaboration #Sustainability #NetworkWeavers #FoodSystems #ClimateInvesring #AgricultureInvestment #FarmersFirst 🌍
Steward reposted this
Funding the Growth of Regenerative Agriculture | Founder & CEO at Steward | Co-Founder of Fundrise | Alternative Finance Expert | Follow for finance and farming discussions
An inspiring Steward project in which the current generation wants to make farm life easier for the next generation by upgrading and investing in new technologies: Cottonwood Farms in The Daily News.
Chapul Farms is an insect agriculture project development company that designs, builds, and operates commercial-scale Black Soldier Fly Larvae facilities. They are harnessing the power of insect agriculture to recapture food waste and create nutrient-dense organic soil amendments and livestock feed. *** Tomorrow, Friday, October 18th at 12pm PT / 3pm ET, we're launching a $2.2m participated loan campaign to support their work and innovation in ecological regeneration! *** Watch this great mini-documentary about Chapul Farms to learn more about the power of nutrient recycling with insect agriculture. https://hubs.ly/Q02TSRB20 We would love you to join us in supporting them by making a loan to the campaign at https://hubs.ly/Q02TT35w0. (Terms: 6 months, 10% APR)
"We turned concrete into gardens. We turned barren dirt into living soil. We told stories of living systems. Of symbiosis. And of revival." - Pat Crowley, CEO of Chapul Farms at Wings Conference 2024 Join us! We're launching a $2.2m participated loan campaign tomorrow, Friday, October 18th at 12pm PT / 3pm ET at https://hubs.ly/Q02TSZ7g0. You can support the innovation going on at Chapul Farms by making a loan as small as $100. Driven by a passion for innovation, regeneration, and holistic natural solutions, Chapul Farms is pioneering a zero-waste insect agriculture nutrient recycling facility. By harnessing the remarkable capabilities of Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL), Chapul's elegant system transforms discarded food waste into nutritious, organic high-protein livestock feed and premium-quality organic soil amendments—keeping waste out of landfills and promoting the regeneration of our natural resources. Chapul Farms recently secured a prestigious $3.9 million grant from the USDA's Fertilizer Production and Expansion Program. This loan from Steward will provide the upfront liquidity needed by Chapul to utilize grant funds to help acquire the site where Chapul's first commercial scale BSFL facility will be located. Join us in supporting the innovative work going on at Chapul Farms to recover wasted resources, reintroduce insects into their vital role in our food system, and produce natural organic soil fertilizers for other farms.