EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Regenerative farming needs to scale three times faster to address the threat to a resilient and sustainable food supply presented by climate change and biodiversity loss. This Action Plan sets out to identify what can be done by the private sector to accelerate the adoption of regenerative farming, recognising this is imperative to achieving net zero commitments and preventing future supply disruption. It is the result of collaborative work carried out by a Task Force representing key companies in the global food supply system with the support of other players from across the value chain. The Action Plan has been created with a focus on what the private sector can do to create the conditions in which it is a ‘nobrainer’ for farmers to want to farm regeneratively; we believe this is the key to achieving scale.
WHY REGENERATIVE FARMING IS NOT SCALING
Our work showed that there are three main reasons why regenerative farming is not scaling:
- The short-term economic case is not compelling enough for the average farmer
- There is a knowledge gap in how to implement regenerative farming
- Drivers in the value chain aren’t aligned to encourage regenerative farming
WHAT WE DID
We created three case studies by exploring these value chains. Our aim was to look at different farming archetypes so that the recommended actions could apply to a wider range of crops and geographies. For each case study, representatives from each step of the value chain worked together to understand the issues from the farmer’s perspective and identify what each sector could do to make regenerative farming more attractive to them. We also interviewed farmers and other stakeholders in order to fully understand how the current value chain and market conditions may be creating a barrier to the adoption of regenerative farming as well as to identify examples of interventions demonstrating potential to achieve mainstream scale.
The biggest constraint of the three reasons above is: if the economic case is not sufficiently attractive, then farmers will not look to overcome the other issues. For this reason, we have focused on the Big Five issues that relate to how to make regenerative farming pay for the farmer. These are complex system changes that require further planning and collaboration across the food system and with governments.
1. Agree common metrics for environmental outcomes
2. Build farmers' income from environmental outcomes
3. Create mechanisms to share the cost of farmers' transitions
4. Ensure government policy rewards farmers for transition
5. Source differently to share cost across value chains
Actions to take now
We’ve also created a set of actions which are comparatively straightforward and enable companies throughout the value chain to make their own changes; the Action Plan contains a sector-specific guide to help companies understand what they can do right away. If these Big Five issues can be addressed, coupled with progress on knowledge and drivers through implementing the ‘Actions to take now’, there is every reason to believe that scaling regenerative agriculture across the world is achievable.
Key insights for successful implementation
To succeed in implementing the actions and solving the Big Five issues, we must:
• Shift our mindset from focusing on what the farmer needs to do to what our organisations can do to make it easier and more attractive to adopt regenerative farming
• Accept ambiguity and make decisions based on the balance of evidence, not precise costs and valuations
• Get better at collaboration within and across sectors and value chains to maximise the potential benefits and cost sharing opportunities
• Assign our commercial and procurement experts to develop new models, not only sustainability teams
• Design interventions with a high level of local specificity and cultural awareness
Next steps
The Task Force is set to continue its work into 2023 to put this plan into action.
Contact info@sustainable-markets.org to find out how to work with us on tackling the Big Five issues
