Co-hosted by Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders and Croatan Institute

Join us for a virtual double-feature film screening and conversation exploring one of the most pressing questions in food and agriculture today: how do we finance the transition to regenerative systems at the scale and speed this moment demands?

This joint screening features excerpts of the film Digging In from the Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders and Soil Wealth: Investing in Regenerative Agriculture from Croatan Institute. Together, these films illuminate the opportunity in regenerative agriculture to restore soil health, strengthen rural economies, and build climate resilience. They also expose a shared tension: while regenerative practices are proven and growing, capital structures have not kept pace.

Following the screenings, a moderated panel with funders, investors, and field leaders will examine the role of transformative finance in unlocking this transition. We will explore how grantmaking, investing, and lending can move beyond short-term risk frameworks to support long-term stewardship, farmer viability, and community wealth. The conversation will share practical insights on what is working, where capital is still misaligned, and how funders can collaborate to close critical financing gaps.

This event is designed for philanthropic and investment leaders who are:

• curious about a just, democratic, and sustainable food and agriculture system;
• grappling with how to deploy non-extractive capital more effectively;
• seeking peers committed to aligning finance with ecological and social outcomes

Whether you are already funding in this space or exploring your next steps, this screening and discussion offers a grounded entry point into why regenerative agriculture needs new financial tools and why the time to act is now.

Q&A

1. “What financial tools are most effective and where are the gaps?”
   • Bridge loans, often secured by private or public program awards or contracts. For example, USDA NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Bridge Loans or bridge loans that help farmers take advantage of “cost-share, reimbursable” grants that require spending money and implementing practices before they can receive their awards.
     
   • Loan guarantees that help de-risk loans
     
   • Loans with flexible terms, such as unsecured loans in general and unsecured land loans in particular. Lower interest rate loans, lower or no closing costs or hidden fees (pre-payment or servicing), longer repayment periods, low-to-no repayments in early years. Simple interest rate loans that are not amortized using daily compounding.
   • Effective gap filler: Forgivable/convertible recoverable grants (effectively a 0% loan, convertible into a grant upon certain progress)
     
   • Conservation easement funds to purchase development rights are limited, highly competitive, and often dependent on the USDA with exceptionally long timelines. We need more flexible, rapid-response philanthropic easement funding, but the easements also need to have restrictive regenerative covenants. Not just preserving farmland or forests but ensuring they are moved out of “conventional” production. This is a major gap.
     
   • Land acquisition financing is a major gap. Many lenders and investors will not finance raw farmland and forests without unaffordable down payments. Hence the need for the Resilient Southern LAND Fund and other similar strategies in other parts of the country.
     
   • Low-interest, patient capital with flexible terms is highly effective because it allows farms to retain value and manage seasonal variability. The biggest gaps are in pre-development support, like financial cleanup, modeling, and deal structuring, and post-close support to work with farmers on ongoing financial management. Without subsidy, that work either doesn’t happen or those costs get pushed onto farmers who are least able to absorb them.
     
     
2. “I’m curious if folks have sought a loan with their Farm Credit Association and what was the outcome?”
   • Yes, generally, if you have a good credit score, or solid, multi-year farm financials with P&L and Balance Sheets, one can qualify for local FCA operating or farm construction loans. Generally, these are costlier: PRIME + 1% for very good credit, with relatively high closing costs. A member does, however, benefit from an annual patronage dividend, depending on the ACA’s net profitability — which effectively subsidizes the cost of capital.
     
   • FCA mortgages can be good options for financing acquisition of a farm that serves as a primary residence. The cost of mortgages is much more competitive, vs. operating loans. However, FCA loan officers will get into your business and potentially steer one’s operation away from certain activities (e.g., dairy) toward added-value production
     
     
3. “What factors or practices that FoodShed Capital, Croatan and presenters are using for  “regenerative agriculture,” and specifically if  eliminating or reducing pesticides and chemical fertilizers is included along with soil health practices?  Also, are socio-economic factors such as equity and worker/farmer health included in the interpretation of regenerative?”
   • At Croatan Institute, we aim to meet growers where they are, but we do strongly encourage eliminating synthetic chemical inputs and, if the grower has capacity and relevant markets, to consider Organic certification. We provide an expansive conceptualization of “regenerative agriculture” in our flagship 2019 paper “Soil Wealth: Investing in Regenerative Agriculture across Asset Classes” (pp. 2-4): “Instead of simply avoiding further degradation and depletion, regenerative agriculture aims to work with natural systems to restore, improve, and enhance the biological vitality, carrying capacity, and ‘ecosystem services’ of farming landscapes. Regenerative farming operations also aim to support the resilience of the rural communities and broader value chains in which they are situated.” This is a much more expansive conceptualization of regen. ag. than that of “carbon cowboys” — one that takes farmer livelihoods and equity explicitly into consideration.
     
   • Akiptan: The primary regenerative practices we encourage through our direct TA with farmers and landowners are rooted in long-standing agroecological and agrarian traditions (Indigenous, Black, and smallholder), including soil health-building strategies associated with cover cropping, reduced tillage, diversified rotation and other diversity-enhancing practices, re-introduction of fire on the landscape through prescribed burning and biochar, applying natural sugars, mulch, and other carbon sources to the soil, introducing trees and other perennials across the farm landscape (agroforestry interventions such as hedgerows, windbreaks, alleycropping, silvopasture, riparian borders, and forest farming in the understory), planting native pollinator strips and habitat corridors, more intensively managed grazing of livestock with high animal welfare standards, native grassland restoration, and more naturalized forest management.
     
   • At RBI’s Free Union Farm, several of these practices are being pursued, including transitioning away from conventional monocultural farming and forestry practices (GMO commodity grains, clearcutting loblolly pine plantations) into a more diversified operation, with the discontinuation of all synthetic chemical spraying and fertilizing, the transformation of the woodlands through selective thinning and prescribed burning into silvopasture for agroforestry hog production, the revitalization of an historic pecan grove using organic methods, and the development of an on-site native nursery to increase biodiversity.
     
   • Foodshed Capital: Regenerative agriculture, as we define it, centers on small- to mid-scale farms using soil-based, diversified systems that continuously improve ecosystem health: building soil, supporting biodiversity, and contributing to climate resilience while reducing harmful inputs. It also extends beyond ecology to include social and economic resilience, equitable food access, and food sovereignty. A better food system, one that heals the land, nourishes people, and creates resilient communities, depends on the ability of local farms to stay in business feeding their communities. When that happens, those farms have the time and stability to deepen the regenerative practices and community connections that climate solutions depend on.
     
     
4. “As a funder very new to the Regen Ag space but excited by the opportunities, what is the best way to channel charitable dollars to catalyze the existing work of so many great orgs on this call and elsewhere?”
   • Be sure to seek mission-related investing opportunities as you determine your grantmaking strategy. Put your cash in rural ag banks or credit unions that finance resilient food systems. Invest in CDFI and impact loan funds. Allocate equity capital to regenerative farmland and forestland funds. Even public market investments can be mobilized to divest from extractive food and ag value-chain companies and invest in more sustainable alternatives. SAFSF, TIFS, and FORA are just a few of many great philanthropic networks for learning about mission-aligned investment opportunities.
     
   • Catalytic philanthropy has a huge role to play, particularly in the context of the public funding crisis at USDA. Many organizations have been hit directly by federal shifts in funding priorities, freezes and terminations, away from explicit “climate” and “DEI” related regenerative agricultural initiatives. Provide general operating support to organizations deeply involved in this work to give them the flexibility and operational and overhead capacity that restricted project or programmatic funding simply does not provide. And even when government funding can be tapped, the restrictions against overhead and advocacy are challenging.
     
   • Some of the most catalytic work is happening at the margins. Supporting pilot projects that are often fiscally sponsored is a great way to start. At Croatan Institute, we have fiscally sponsored numerous regenerative, agroecological projects, including RBI’s Free Union Farm Sustainability Hub.
     
   • Support grassroots, community- and place-based initiatives as an agroecological alternative to large incumbent organizations (such as land grant universities, which as a matter of course receive huge allocations of funding from USDA and state agricultural agencies). Nonprofit food hubs, nonprofit technical assistance providers, smaller conservation organizations, regenerative mutual aid initiatives, community-based rural development organizations, regional value-chain groups working on fiber, food systems, and forestry are great examples.
     
   • Financing land access and land-back initiatives is extremely important, particularly with Indigenous groups, as well as other underserved farmers of color that have experienced land dispossession and small family and community-based farming initiatives that face unaffordable land valuations. Follow-on infrastructure and land improvement funding, as well as farm operating capital, become even more critical following land acquisitions.
     
   • Foodshed Capital: Consider an integrated capital approach that combines impact-first investments with grant funding. Mission-driven food funders rely significantly on both. Impact-first investments are integral to supporting farmers with as low-cost financing as possible while preserving return-of-capital expectations. Grant funding further supports the non-profit mission of advancing food system transformation without erecting cost barriers for farmers, while also allowing non-profits to build and maintain the capacity they need to deliver programming.
     
   • Long term PRI, gen ops grants to support the deployment of the dollars, hands off/partnership approach

Resources

Speakers

William Barber III

CEO, Rural Beacon Initiative, LLC.

William J. Barber III currently serves as the Director of Equitable Investment and Energy Justice at the Coalition for Green Capital and the CEO of Rural Beacon Initiative, LLC.  Possessing over a decade of social justice organizing experience and deep academic training in the history, science, and law behind environmental and climate issues, William is committed to connecting policymakers, grassroots leaders, faith leaders, and corporations to ensure we are collaborating on climate solutions that are equitable for all.

Barber’s background includes extensive experience as a social justice organizer and environmental justice advocate, working with the North Carolina NAACP, the Poor People’s Campaign, the Climate Reality Project, and numerous other organizations. Barber’s work focuses on increasing the self-determination of communities through responsible finance. With a bachelor’s in Environmental Physics from North Carolina Central University, and a J.D. in Environmental Law and Policy from UNC School of Law, Barber also sits on the board of the Croatan Institute. 

As CEO of Rural Beacon Initiative, LLC, Barber has collaborated with Croatan Institute to acquire a farm in the historic Free Black community of Piney Woods, NC, using innovative financing in partnership with Foodshed Capital. 

Skya Ducheneaux

Executive Director, Akiptan (CDFI)

Skya Ducheneaux is the Executive Director of Akiptan and is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She spent her first 18 years of life on a cattle ranch on the CRST Reservation in South Dakota. She then pursued a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Business Administration while working at a county FSA office and buffalo meat processing plant. After returning home to work for the Intertribal Agriculture Council, she was tasked with creating the first Native CDFI dedicated to serving Native Agriculture producers all across Indian Country. Akiptan began lending in January of 2019 and has grown rapidly over the years.

In addition to Akiptan, Skya has served on many advisory committees and is currently the Board Chair of the Mountain Plains CDC. In her role as Executive Director, she is a part of several CDFI coalitions, advocates locally and federally and presents at conferences to share the mission of Akiptan. 

Indy Brahm

Chief Operating Officer, Foodshed Capital

Indy joined in January 2020 as Foodshed’s first formal employee. She has played an integral role in designing and refining our loan process, while collaborating with other staff as the organization has grown to embed business support services into our process. She continues to take the lead on our operational strategy as we expand lending and business support to new regions.

While completing her degree in Global Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia, Indy worked as a Senior Associate at the Charlottesville Angel Network (CAN). There she gained experience vetting potential investments and working with companies on their business models. Indy worked previously at the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council, managing educational programming and assisting with operations as the Deputy Director.

During the spring of 2018, Indy spent 5 months studying Spanish language and culture in Cordoba, Argentina and is now fluent in Spanish. After graduating from UVA in May of 2019, Indy set out for the cloud forests of Northern Ecuador for three months with two colleagues and $21,000 in grant funding. There she worked with provincial governments, NGOs, and community stakeholders to support sustainable development and economic alternatives to open-pit mining. This included creating and instituting a US-Ecuador small farm coffee trade relationship, negotiating the purchase of equipment for a women’s plantain flour cooperative, and establishing an ongoing partnership with UVA’s global studies department. From 2021-2023, Indy honed her farming skills by volunteering weekly at Real Roots Food Systems in Richmond.

Christi Electris

Executive Director & Co-founder, Croatan Institute

Christi Electris is the Executive Director and co-founder of Croatan Institute, a research and action institute working at the intersections of food, fiber, forestry, and finance. She has done consulting and research on a variety of environmental and social issues, including projects on energy, climate, agriculture, well-being, sustainability indicators, and corporate redesign. A computer scientist and quantitative policy analyst by training, she has designed policy scenario analyses with environmental and social impacts. While at Tellus Institute, she analyzed company practices and policies in worker equity at large public and private food and agriculture companies, helping develop a new framework for social and environmental impact investing across asset classes, known as Total Portfolio Activation. 

At Croatan Institute, she regularly contributes to the thematic application of the Total Portfolio Activation framework to the Institute’s work on sustainable food and regenerative agriculture. Christi is a trained Climate Reality Leader, and also serves on the CDFA Food System Advisory Council. She is based in Brookline, Massachusetts.

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