Regenerative Agriculture in the spotlight

With the Regenerative Agriculture Community now well underway, Community Manager Ileen Wilke explains why this innovative approach to agriculture is more essential than ever. She highlights its potential in the food transition, explores the Regenerative Innovation Portfolio, and discusses the great added value of the growing community. 

What is the potential of Regenerative Agriculture in the food transition?

Regenerative agriculture has the potential to transform food systems by making them more resilient, sustainable and climate adaptive. It strengthens supply chains ensuring long-term productivity, security and predictability. This is established by focusing on outcomes such as enhanced biodiversity, improved soil health, and climate change mitigation, by integrating diverse practices like minimal tilling, cover cropping, crop rotation and diversification. It prioritizes replenishing environmental resources, offering a sustainable method of producing food while restoring ecosystems and considering both social and economic impacts.

The business models for regenerative agriculture are still developing, aiming to reward farmers for ecosystem services like improved soil health, water retention, enriched biodiversity, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. However, since these benefits are often viewed as public goods extending beyond individual farms, questions around ownership and scalability make monetization challenging. 

At the same time, many corporations are committed to reducing their GHG footprint and are increasingly looking at soil quality as part of their sustainability strategies and ESG goals. Healthier soil can store more carbon, making regenerative agriculture a valuable tool for achieving emissions reduction goals. Growing regulatory pressure, such as the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), further increases the urgency by mandating sustainability reporting. Beyond regulatory compliance, supply chain resilience is a critical driver. 

Regenerative agriculture improves soil health, water retention and biodiversity, making farms more resilient to extreme weather events. For example, healthier soils can absorb and retain more water, reducing crop losses during droughts. By integrating regenerative practices, businesses strengthen resilience while meeting sustainability commitments and market demand for responsible sourcing. 

The transition to regenerative farming requires collaboration across and beyond value chains and cannot be achieved by farmers alone. Businesses, farmers, policy makers, financial institutions, researchers and consumers all have a role to play in building a regenerative ecosystem.   

Foodvalley is delivering the Regenerative Innovation Portfolio in partnership with EIT Food – a collaboration launched in 2024 as a Food Innovation Hub Europe Initiative of the World Economic Forum. The Portfolio takes a landscape-based approach, involving farmers and stakeholders across Europe. Could you tell us more about it?

The Regenerative Innovation Portfolio aims to scale up regenerative agriculture across Europe. It seeks to unlock new partnerships across the food and agriculture value chain, bringing practical solutions that will enable viable short and long-term business models for farmers who want to transition towards regenerative agriculture.  

Taking a pragmatic landscape-based approach, the Portfolio focuses on European regions where interest in transitioning to regenerative agriculture can be paired with willingness of off-takers to initiate and co-finance a joint project. The aim is to support and connect pioneers, and to accelerate the transition towards regenerative agriculture at scale. It is very important to coordinate well between these off takers, farmers, and other stakeholders involved such as local municipalities, water boards and civil society organisations. 

A key example is the landscape Navarra 360º in Spain, aiming to transition over 200 farmers to regenerative practices in three years. By the end of the year, more landscape projects are expected to kick off in other regions of Europe.

To support cross-value chain collaboration, the Portfolio co-finances landscapes through funding from EIT Food and participating off-takers, covering the first three years of the transition. This funding reduces economic risk for farmers and stakeholders, allowing them to explore and implement regenerative practices tailored to their unique local conditions. Flexibility is required when working on regenerative agriculture, as practices in the Netherlands may look very different from those in Spain, reflecting local environmental, social, and economic factors. This adaptability ensures farmers are at the forefront of the transition, empowering them to determine the pace and methods best suited to their land and capabilities. 

By fostering collaboration and providing financial and practical support, the Regenerative Innovation Portfolio is setting the stage for a resilient, sustainable future for European agriculture. 

How does the community complement the landscape approach and why should regenerative agriculture enthusiasts join the community?

Beyond the landscapes, scaling regenerative agriculture requires an engaged and informed ecosystem. The Regenerative Agriculture Community brings together a wide range of stakeholders to innovate and accelerate regenerative agriculture. Open to any organisation seeking to explore or enhance its efforts in this field, the Community serves as a vibrant platform for collaboration, learning, and networking. As a Community Partner, you will connect with peers across sectors, participate in events, and gain valuable insights from the regenerative agriculture movement. Whether by sharing ideas, solving challenges, or building partnerships, you’ll have the space to make an impact. With the Community’s support, organizations can focus on progress without tackling challenges in isolation.

At the first Community Session on February 6, over 45 dedicated changemakers from food and agribusiness, AgTech, research, sustainability and policy sectors gathered to discuss the barriers to scaling regenerative agriculture and the opportunities for accelerating its adoption. The session featured dynamic and engaging discussions, demonstrating the willingness to break down barriers and collaborate across and beyond the value chain.

A key strength of the Community is its close ties to the landscapes in the Regenerative Innovation Portfolio. This on-the-ground connection creates a powerful synergy: landscape partners can seek advice and solutions from Community members, while Community members gather insights, learn and can test ideas directly in real-world applications. This two-way exchange fosters innovation, accelerates the adoption of regenerative practices, and elevates collective efforts to a new level. 

More information about the Regenerative Innovation Portfolio can be found here. If you want to be involved in the transition and collaborate to overcome barriers and drive transformation towards a more sustainable, resilient food system, we invite you to join the Regenerative Agriculture Community. Follow this link to complete the Information Request Form and select ‘Regenerative Agriculture Community’ to stay involved.