Across the United States, farmers and ranchers are feeling the squeeze. High interest rates, volatile markets, extreme weather, and rising input costs are converging into a perfect storm of financial distress. The warning signs are uncomfortably familiar to those leading up to the 1980s farm crisis, when hundreds of thousands of farmers lost their land, rural communities emptied, and farmer suicide rates spiked.

As we emerge from yet another winter of record-breaking weather extremes, the global focus on food systems is justifiably intensifying. Regenerative agriculture continues to gain momentum as a solution to our climate woes – and many other issues, too, like social justice, improving farmer livelihoods, and revitalizing rural economies. As a producer, you may be enticed by its promises of reduced input costs, greater climate resilience, or even premium pricing. You may have even experimented with some regenerative practices like cover cropping and crop rotation.

Lauren Manning contributed a chapter discussing how access to patient, flexible, and non-extractive capital could make or break the transition to regenerative agriculture

Having attended the first Regenerative Food System Investment Forum in 2019, one thing was clear during this year’s event – capital holders are spending less time asking why they should deploy capital in the space and focusing more on how and where they should deploy capital.