In 2050, we need to provide food security to ten billion people worldwide. Simultaneously, our current agricultural production system is exceeding its limits. The result? Negative impacts on the environment and disrupted essential ecosystem services. While crop yields due to climate change, soil degradation and biodiversity loss make farming and farmer livelihoods increasingly vulnerable, this crisis provides us with the greatest opportunity to transform our food systems. It’s a chance to not only restore nature but also to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, all while ensuring that every person on this planet is adequately nourished. This transformation is challenging, without doubt, but it’s where we can make the most significant impact for a sustainable future.
Farmers are fundamental to our food system. Improving the resilience of farms is crucial for their long-term economic viability, ensuring food security and aligning with our planet’s limits. Cross-value chain collaboration is essential for a successful transition to sustainable agricultural practices. Regenerative agriculture enhances the diversity and resilience of our food system. Hence, it is in the interest of the entire value chain to endorse the transition to regenerative farming.
Regenerative agriculture offers a holistic approach to farming that prioritizes ecological health and resilience, aiming to create sustainable food systems that benefit both people and the planet. It works by harnessing natural processes to restore and improve the health of agricultural ecosystems. It focuses on building soil health, increasing biodiversity and enhancing ecosystem resilience, ultimately leading to sustainable and productive farming systems and vibrant livelihoods.
The Regenerative Innovation Portfolio aims to remove barriers to bringing regenerative agriculture to scale by demonstrating innovative cross-value chain solutions in Europe, enabling viable business models to boost the supply of regenerative products and ecosystem services. This transformation aims to cultivate a circular agrifood landscape rooted in value-based principles, fostering inclusivity for both nature and social well-being.
The Regenerative Innovation Portfolio, funded by EIT Food, is an ecosystem collaboration, established as a Food Innovation Hub Europe Initiative, and brought to you in collaboration with Foodvalley.
The Portfolio follows a landscape-based approach involving communities of farmers, offtakers and other stakeholders in regions across Europe willing to adopt regenerative practices covering multiple commodity value chains and connecting to various collaborating offtakers.
The Portfolio initiates various innovative cross-value chain initiatives on a landscape level that work towards our mission statement through three main pillars:
To facilitate the Regenerative Innovation Portfolio and its landscapes, we have built a broader Regenerative Agriculture Community that a broad range of stakeholders, also outside the Regenerative Innovation Portfolio, can join. This Community acts as a breeding ground for collaboration, learning and innovation. It’s a vibrant network of support that shares knowledge, builds innovations, creates ideas, and enables viable businesses to engage in a renewed economic, social and ecologically sustainable agriculture system.
The transition to regenerative agriculture is of interest to many stakeholders. We want to be able to share insights and create a community of purpose to help us drive the transition across Europe.
For more information or opportunities for collaboration, contact Jolijn Zwart – van Kessel, Innovation Lead Circular Agrifood.
We believe that the solution to transition agricultural practices by farmers lies in cross value chain collaboration, where all partners work together in facilitating the farmer, put in the central, to transition towards regenerative practices. This is not an agricultural transition but more a value chain transition that needs a collaborative approach to come to scale.
Read more