More Funders Are Digging Agriculture These Days. This New Affinity Group Is Digging Deep

Paicines Ranch, a regenerative Agriculture operation in California. Photo: Alicia Arcidiacono

In the spring of 2019, a dozen funders interested in regenerative agriculture held a fateful first meeting at Green Valley Farm and Mill in Sebastopol, California. Most were members of a group informally called “the Herd,” which drew together grantmakers with a shared interest in the complex systems that put food on our plates.

Two-plus years later, that group has swelled to more than 60 members and gathers under the banner of Funders for Regenerative Agriculture, or FORA. Its rapid growth is one of several hints that we’re in something of a springtime for grantmaking around agriculture and food systems. 

Annual foundation funding for food and agriculture related to climate mitigation has more than tripled since 2015, led by rising support for regenerative agriculture and the “transition to an inclusive food system,” according to ClimateWorks Foundation. Definitions of regenerative agriculture vary, but broadly speaking, it is a holistic approach to farming and ranching that considers the web of impacts that food systems have on everything from water quality to climate change.

Bigger bucks appear to be on the way, at least for the broader field. Jeff Bezos’ fund has pledged $1 billion to transform the way food is grown and consumed, though details remain limited. The Walton Family Foundation (a FORA member) has long made agriculture a priority, and third-generation family members are starting to ramp up their grantmaking. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is another big-time ag funder — last year, it pledged $315 million for a small-scale farmer initiative — which may expand such work as climate change intensifies.

The funders in this space represent varied, even conflicting approaches, and they’re a testament to wide-ranging interest in addressing how we grow vegetables, raise livestock and get food to people’s kitchens. A number of analyses drive home the far-reaching climate importance of those questions — and the role of philanthropic funding in answering them.

The potential is enormous. Two of the top four entries on Project Drawdown’s list of the most impactful climate solutions lie within the sector dubbed “food, agriculture and land use/land sinks.” The sector accounts for roughly 24% of current global greenhouse gas emissions, according to IPCC and Global Carbon Project data, while land sinks are already responsible for pulling back down roughly the same share of overall emissions. Yet foundation spending on food and agriculture has averaged around 15% of total climate mitigation spending in recent years, according to ClimateWorks.

FORA and the broader regenerative agriculture space is one fast-growing corner of this world. Though it’s still a featherweight compared to other areas, some of which have drawn mega-pledges, regenerative agriculture has attracted a broad base of support, including a few billionaires. With agricultural funding blooming, the network offers some insight into an area that might stand to benefit.

Who has it drawn?

The funders who come to FORA aren’t necessarily focused on agriculture, per se. Some are concerned with health or climate change, others with topics like agricultural employment, water conservation or food quality, said Urvashi Rangan, co-chair of FORA’s steering committee and chief science advisor at GRACE Communications Foundation.

“We kept seeing if you do the calculus for how you get to the best of [the above priorities and more], you drive back at the same answer, which is regenerative agriculture,” she told me. One core element underlying the field is soil health, a factor in everything from nutrition to soaking up climate-intensified storms, and a central component to the practice of regenerative agriculture.

FORA’s membership is thus somewhat eclectic, but private foundations are the core of the group, accounting for about half of members. Many are midsized family foundations, such as the Campbell, Cedar Tree and Thornburg foundations.

Levels of experience and expertise vary. About a third of the funders involved are deeply versed in the space, a third have some degree of experience, and a third are relatively new to the field. A core group of supporters provides multi-year grants to fund the long-term operation of FORA.

Not all members are on the small end. A few of the nation’s largest foundations are involved, notably the Rockefeller Foundation and, as noted, the Walton Family Foundation. FORA is also an international network, with members in Australia, Canada and across Europe.

There are also a few billionaire giving vehicles on board. They include TomKat Foundation, the operation of hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor; and 11th Hour Project, one of the philanthropic initiatives of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, who serves as its president. The Sobrato family’s philanthropy, which recently launched a climate portfolio, is also a member.

A few members are looking to support regenerative agriculture and make a profit. That list includes investment and venture capital outfits like RSF Social Finance, Cienega Capital and Armonia, as well as loan providers and some family offices.

“We’re not just a philanthropy network… and that’s okay,” Rangan said. “Our goal is to increase the amount of investment that goes into regenerative agriculture.”

What does the network do?

In many respects, FORA is like other philanthropy-supporting organizations. It holds monthly calls, it sends a monthly newsletter, it has a Slack channel for members, and it invites experts to discuss topics like herbicides or how grazing affects soil health. Last month, it hosted its second-ever in-person meeting. The site was the 7,600-acre Paicines Ranch, a regenerative operation owned and run by member Sallie Calhoun, founder of #NoRegrets Initiative.

Unlike some peer organizations, FORA is explicitly a place where funders try to recruit each other. Jennifer O’Connor, the group’s executive director, cited that as a difference from Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Funders, the biggest group in the broader agriculture space, and a FORA member and close collaborator.

“FORA is an ask zone. Let’s talk about what needs funding, when, how, and collaborate on that,” she said.

The network has also birthed a variety of collaboratives. The Grassfed Alliance was formed by five funders interested in, as you might guess, grazing livestock. A similar group launched the Good Meat Project. FORA will also be the home of the [Re]Generation Fellows, a rebranded version of a long-running project from the original “Herd” members that helps young and returning farmers attend conferences and trainings.

One of members’ major interests at the moment is finance. Members are trying out a variety of tools to lower the cost of capital, i.e., for farms and ranches seeking to adopt regenerative practices. Communications and policy are other big topics for the organization.

And it’s got a lot in the works. FORA is in the process of launching funds supporting work on all three areas: finance, communications and policy. The group also recently released the first of a dozen planned briefs on the case for regenerative agriculture. On policy, one goal is to generate a more consistent, multi-year, unrestricted base of funding for advocacy around the federal government’s titanic spending on agriculture, a perennial concern in the space.

“A lot of groups just don’t have the consistent capacity they need to do that,” said O’Connor, who is one of two full-time staff. “They might get funding boosts just before each Farm Bill, and then it’s gone.” 

O’Connor has experience at this intersection. In 2020, she put together a report — which I wrote about — that made the case for foundation support to overcome the barriers to the adoption of regenerative agriculture in the United States.

What’s on the horizon?

Launched as a five-year project, FORA now envisions continuing for at least a decade. The scale of the interest — and the shifts these funders are trying to make — demand long-term commitment.

One of FORA’s next steps is to try to answer two of the most essential questions for any philanthropic issue: How much money is out there? And where is it going?

Eighteen months ago, O’Connor told me total funding for regenerative agriculture was no more than $2 million annually — less than many a major institutional funder’s overhead. FORA is now trying to get a lot more specific. It recently launched a project not just to track total grantmaking, but also to help connect funders working on similar issues and strategize based on overall funding. The pilot version will be ready by the end of the year.

The effort mirrors FORA’s overall aim to make connections easier than simply searching for others on Google — and ensure that more people in the space can find peers who are also learning as they go in a still-nascent field.

“FORA feels like home for a lot of these folks. It’s a place to check in, get a gut reaction,” Rangan said. “Maybe someone wants to share some troubles that they’re having… and talking about your problems out there is a little bit hard.” She added, “Regenerative ag is hard, and we are still learning a lot.”