David Bennell’s Post

I'm excited about the growing global momentum around food systems and regenerative agriculture investing - - however, I'm worried that the momentum is ahead of actual understanding of the topic by key financial actors in the food and agriculture value chain. Several studies estimate the global annual need for #regenag #transition costs to be USD $200 billion - $450 billion for at least the next decade, while funding flows today are approximately one-tenth of estimated annual need.  I was therefore thrilled to stumble upon this The Rockefeller Foundation supported report by Pollination and Transformational Investing in Food Systems helping us envision the financial structures needed to redirect finance and rebuild food systems that are better for people and planet. There is A LOT in here so hard to summarize but here is a teaser: 📊 Regenerative agriculture financing is in its early stages, hindered by a lack of proven financial models. 🏭 To grow, the market needs developed commercial models, supportive markets, and large institutional investments. 💰 Significant concessional capital with high risk tolerance is crucial to accelerate market maturity. 🕴🏻 Pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, and foundations can play a pivotal role in shaping the ecosystem. 🤝 Collaborating to distribute risk across the value chain is essential for building healthier food systems. This is a broad catalogue of the innovative regenerative financing instruments currently being deployed globally and I'd recommend anyone looking at this sector to take a look. Kudos to authors Maria Kozloski Dave Haynes Sara Farley Roy Steiner Steven Lang Rex Raimond Tim Crosby and friends David Bennell & Alexander Bashian. Ping #regenag fans and implementors David Herring Raviv Turner Jay Lipman Samuel Gill Josh Knauer Vasco van Roosmalen Frederick Leuschner Reagan Cerci Hari Balasubramanian Deborah Bossio Danielle Knueppel Eric Benmeir Kozakow #regenerativeagriculture #finance #sustainability #foodsystems #investing

Yesterday, Overstory Ventures was honored to co-host a workshop with Transformational Investing in Food Systems with a powerhouse group of 30 leading Upper Midwest farmers, farmer-led organizations, emerging brands, major industry partners and coalitions, agricultural lenders, funders, ecosystem builders, and university partners to develop major regional regenerative transition efforts or "Lighthouse Initiatives" to advance diversified, continuous living cover agriculture in the region. Thank you, David Cooper, for joining and sharing your expertise on innovative financial mechanisms to advance the regenerative transition. A few sections of David's reflections that stood out: "Regenerative transition requires more than just deploying capital. It requires us to reimagine how we fundamentally finance food and agriculture. Traditional capital emphasizes short-term returns and standardized metrics. Regenerative capital systems recognize the time horizons of ecological restoration, flexible structures that account for the complexity of diversified operations, and blended approaches that value multiple forms of return – financial, social, and environmental. Our goal isn't just to design new financial mechanisms – it's to build the collaborative infrastructure needed for a regenerative transition that works for all stakeholders. The future of resilient #agriculture depends on innovative financing. Let's build lighthouse projects that unlock capital and scale hashtag #regenerative solutions."

"The regenerative transformation of our food system isn't just an opportunity – it's an imperative. While the evidence is clear that regenerative agriculture offers solutions to our most pressing challenges – from climate resilience to rural economic vitality to food security – we face a stark reality: current financing flows are approximately one-tenth of what's needed for critical transition. Regenerative transition requires more than just deploying capital. It requires us to reimagine how we fundamentally finance food and agriculture. Traditional capital emphasizes short-term returns and standardized metrics. Regenerative capital systems recognize the time horizons of ecological restoration, flexible structures that account for the complexity of diversified operations, and blended approaches that value multiple forms of return – financial, social, and environmental. I'm joining Transformational Investing in Food Systems, aka TIFS, in Minnesota because the Midwest represents a Lighthouse. Innovative producers see the benefits of silvopasture and diversified crop systems. Food entrepreneurs are seeking to promote and rely on a more resilient supply. Researchers are ideating regenerative systems and practices. What's missing is the financial architecture to connect these pieces—to make big money small, align incentives across the value chain, and share risk among stakeholders. But we also have unprecedented momentum. We're seeing new models emerge – from blended finance facilities that leverage public, private, and philanthropic capital to revenue-based financing that better matches agricultural cash flows to innovative arrangements that preserve ownership while enabling scale. The success of initiatives like the Amana Fund in Brazil shows what's possible when we combine innovative financial structures with solid partnerships and clear impact metrics. The TIFS workshop is about moving from possibility to action. By bringing together producers, processors, brands, investors, and ecosystem builders, we aim to co-create lighthouse initiatives that can demonstrate how to unlock capital at scale. Our goal isn't just to design new financial mechanisms – it's to build the collaborative infrastructure needed for a regenerative transition that works for all stakeholders. "The future of resilient #agriculture depends on innovative financing. Let's build lighthouse projects that unlock capital and scale #regenerative solutions." Thank you, Tim Crosby, Rex Raimond, David Bennell, Laura Thompson, Tina Owens Carolina Donoso, Colin Cureton #regeneration #impactinvesting #food #regenerativeagriculture

Just wrapped up our second quarterly look at regenerative agriculture and food investment activity! Key insights from Q2: 📈 The quarter brought what appears to be an increase in the number of capital commitments to regenerative agriculture and food… but a lag in the amount of capital committed. Only time will tell if the number of deals is a positive and bigger commitments will come or if this is a blip in activity. ⚙️ While VC investment in enabling innovations remained the top investment type, there was great diversity in the technologies invested in. Biologicals remained on top but investments in diverse platforms for data management and measurement followed close behind - highlighting the need for tools that can translate what’s happening on the ground to farmers, corporates, investors and more. 🌳 Public and corporate funding for projects focused on land use change and practice adoption showed up in Q2 and represent a positive sign that the importance of this foundational support is understood more broadly today. The next step is increasing awareness of the critical need to have supply chain and market investment to go in lock-step with investment at the land and farm level. 🚀 Commitments to regenerative projects at the corporate level are virtually skyrocketing. There seems to be a recognition that talking about one's commitment to these projects is good for business. This is not necessarily bad but it does encourage the exploration of which commitments can bring fruitful progress and which are more akin to greenwashing. 🤝 We also see an uptick in the number of partnerships across corporate and non-corporate entities for regeneratively focused projects. This tells me these companies stepping into the space are seeking beneficial collaborations so they don’t have to go it alone. It's also a reminder that there is an opportunity for corporates to partner with and leverage the expertise of those operations that have much deeper experience in regenerative program and market development in order to increase likelihood of success. 🔗 Lots more to dig into - link to full round-up below and in the attached pdf! Regenerative Food Systems Investment #regenerativeagriculture #foodsystems #investment #investing #aginvesting #foodfinance #impactinvesting

Our Food System Needs to Change: The Crucial Role of True Impact Investing Our current food system destroys our planet, our societies, and our health. On the bright side, there is a tidal wave of (investable) solutions and (sometimes meaningful) actions, fueled by growing awareness, to overcome this dark age of human history. However, overwhelming resistance still exists due to financial interests and power dynamics. To feed the world, we need large-scale industrial agriculture (with chemicals) and processed food (with even more synthetics). BULL! This is the MYTH the food industry has ingrained in our minds. For generations, farmers, consumers, media, academia, and policymakers have been led to believe self-serving falsehoods. The consequences: far-reaching destruction of nature (biodiversity, soil, and water), climate (chemicals and transportation), society (impacting the livelihoods of farmers, locals, and consumers), and health (affecting the nutrition of humans and animals). To name a few. Yes, it's multifaceted. We need to examine the roots of the entire existing system, not just address the symptoms linearly. System Change requires a holistic approach based on ethics - and needs to be financed. Sustainable Finance, as practised by the finance industry, is bound to fail (and counteracts) sustainability, even when disguised under the hijacked brand of Impact Investing. True Impact Investing starts with an uncorrupted mindset of intentionality (not to be confused with intention) and more. So, welcome to embracing complexity (it's not as black and white as my post may sound, but rather billions of colours). And welcome to join the discussion. Join us today (23 July, 4pm CET) in the Regenerative Agriculture Investment panel with impact entrepreneurs Tatiana Antonelli Abella, Nina Mannheimer, LAURA ORTIZ MONTEMAYOR, and Robert Kupstas. This Panel is exclusive to members of Top Tier Impact. If you're not a TTI member yet and would like to join the event, complete the form:👉 https://lnkd.in/ePu3yWvU

Financial capital is one thing, but we are committed to offering more than just a connection with our investor community in Generation-Re. We aim to raise awareness to regenerative agriculture and food through the breadth of businesses we invest in, and the information we share. The value of regeneration leads us -this includes, how we can be regenerative, how we can spread awareness, and spotlight our portfolio companies and changes in the sector. We invest in regenerative agriculture and food businesses that create a better world today and tomorrow, but 'regenerative' encompasses more than just the businesses we invest in. Being regenerative is a way of being, it is about cross-pollinating knowledge between founders, investors, and within the community. We connect online and offline and come together to hear the highlights of growth, what it takes to build a regenerative business, and their investment potential. Koen van Seijen refers to being a member as a mini "MBA" for how much can be learned, but it's more than that, it's a network, and a community of investors, founders, farmers, entrepreneurs, and others who know that regenerative agriculture and food is not only a wise investment decision but the way to create the greatest impact. This is about more than just capital, financial and natural, it is about connection, community, and regenerative capital. Are you aligned with our values and want to join a network investing in regenerative agriculture and food? #regenerativeagriculture #regenerativebusiness #regeneration #foodinvesting https://www.gen-re.land/

My colleague Sai Thao and I attended the Organic and Non-GMO Forum in the fall of 2019. We were just rolling out our organic transition loan program and thought it would be a good place to begin letting people know about it. Never having been to the Forum before, I expected to find the same jeans and plaid shirts crowd as the Marbleseed (formerly MOSES) Organic Farming Conference that I’ve attended every year since 1994. Instead, the Forum was more of an expensive-suit-no-tie gathering. There were folks from multinational corporations, Ivy League universities, venture capital firms, huge foundations, and a few farmers. The attendees were very smart and engaging folks, and we learned a lot. For instance, Sai and I had an interesting conversation with someone who led a regenerative agriculture investment firm from California. We asked her what their minimum deal size might be. She responded, “Oh, we’re willing to make really small investments, as small as $5 million.” That was an eye-opener. I’d never before thought of $5 million as a small investment. The fund manager asked about our minimum deal size. When we said that we make loans as small as $5,000 or $10,000 to regenerative farmers, she abruptly ended the conversation and walked away. She clearly didn’t want to waste another minute talking to these two clowns about their micro-loan program. In the five years since that Forum, we’ve seen a big increase in the number of investors jumping into regenerative agriculture. They are drawn by a desire to help transition more acres to regenerative practices while achieving better than average returns. How many are willing to consider very modest, farmer-scale investments, or is the focus only on multimillion dollar projects covering thousands of acres each? I would love to hear your thoughts. #regenerativeagriculture, #sustainableagriculture

👨🌾 Top 50 Farmers (T50F) is now accepting nominations for its inaugural cohort of regenerative farmers across Europe! This initiative is dedicated to recognizing farmers who are leading the charge in regenerative practices, transforming agriculture to heal the planet, and helping to build resilient communities. By putting farmers at the heart of the sustainability conversation, T50F is creating a vibrant network of role models, innovators, and change-makers. The founders of T50F, Cindie Christiansen and Analisa Winther, are on a mission to put farmers at the center of the sustainability conversation. Their vision? To build a powerful platform where regenerative farmers can share their stories, access resources, and inspire the next generation of agricultural leaders. Why nominate? Selected farmers will have the chance to: ✅ Access a powerful network of nonprofits, investors, and organizations ✅ Receive new pathways to markets, capital, and mentorship ✅ Share their stories and inspire the next generation of regenerative farmers 🌍 At The Nest, we’re proud to support this incredible initiative. Let’s put farmers back in the spotlight as the true heroes of our food systems! Nominate a farmer today, and help elevate the voices that are shaping the future of food. 🌾 Nominations are open until December 13, 2024. 👉 Nominate Now: https://lnkd.in/erV-GSCd #Top50Farmers #RegenerativeAgriculture #SustainableFarming #FoodSystemTransformation #ClimateAction #FarmersFirst

Regenerative Food Systems Investing: 2024 Q2 Round-Up RFSI tracks investments and other capital allocations into regenerative agriculture and food systems initiatives, as well as investments and activities that can enable individuals and operations to transition toward regeneration. While we certainly don’t claim to have tracked all the deals, fund activity, and other news happening across the world in this rapidly growing space, we do capture a good amount. We think digging into what we have tracked can add perspective, and over time, shed light on emerging trends. In our second quarterly round up of regenerative agriculture and food investment activity, RFSI saw a 73% uptick in the number of capital allocations but a decrease in the total capital committed. Catch up on the details of these investments, the funds launched, corporate commitments made, and some informative new reports in our Q2 (April-June) investing round up. Link to full Round-Up summary in PDF! Miraterra Inc. Downforce Technologies Pollination Pelican Ag Octopus McCain Foods Diageo Tetra Pak CIBO Technologies Transformational Investing in Food Systems EARA | European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture Green Finance Institute #regenerativeagriculture #regenerativefarming #investing #investment #quarterlyreview #foodsystems #capitalallocation

From the recently released report by the The Rockefeller Foundation here is a sobering and yet hopeful balance sheet approach to the transition to regenerative agriculture systems. "A shift to regenerative agriculture and food systems unlocks new opportunities. The funding gap to shift conventional global food systems to regenerative is estimated between USD $250 - $430 billion annually for 10 years.6 Closing the gap would unlock USD $4.5 trillion in new investment opportunities per year (~13x the investment cost) and $5.7 trillion of costs per year saved in damages to people and the planet (~16x the investment cost).7 The risks and returns of agrifood investments must be rebalanced. Many investors are aware of climate risks, but few consistently integrate relevant risk management factors into investment processes. As a result, current assessments mischaracterise the risks and returns of conventional vs. regenerative agriculture. Consideration of the long-term profitability and resilience benefits of regenerative agriculture has yet to be factored into investor risk ratings. However, regenerative farmers and regenerative businesses do more than return financial investments. They build strong regional economies and resilient value chains, increase the availability of healthy food, and protect nature. These systemic returns regenerate the natural and social impacts highlighted above." Read the full report here https://lnkd.in/gYmPX_kQ