Investing in Regenerating Hearts & Minds

“The most complex, radical climate technologies on earth are the human heart, head, and mind, not a solar panel.”

— Paul Hawken Regeneration, 2021.

If we are to regenerate Australia’s food, farming and fibre systems then we need to invest in the personal and social infrastructures that shape knowledge and culture, spirit and heart.

We can do this across 3 domains:

• Personal Regeneration
• Knowledge
• Story

Personal Regeneration

For all of us seeking to engage in regenerative work, whatever our role in the system, the work of personal regeneration is the first step. This work is as individual and varied as each human. Wherever we live and however we've grown, it's likely we've internalised, and at times been broken by, some of the patterns that have dominated western culture in recent times. This includes unspoken values of an extractive, human-centric economy, along with racism, misogyny, disconnection from the more-than-human world, competitive mindsets, white supremacy, reductionist science...we could go on and on.

So it follows that to be co-creators of a regenerative future we all have some unlearning, reconnecting, and healing to do in order to operate collaboratively, not competitively. To value life over dollar. To work in relationship with Earth.

We have no prescriptions for this work, and no recipes - just an invitation to pause here, for a moment, and have a ponder about what that work might mean for you.

It asks of all us a personal investment of time, energy and intention.

"I try to get folks to think about things not mechanistically. Earth is not a machine. We are really challenged by that reality as westerners, the culture that came out of Europe that thought it knew best, and created reductionism.

That thinks everything can be narrowed down into this little tin can that you can control....it's just not realistic.”

— Rebecca Burgess Fibreshed | Interview 2022

"We hold learning journeys at the ranch, for investors and philanthropists. We ask them to come and learn, do a deep dive on regenerative ag and talk about how this applies to philanthropy and investing.

More times than not, we see that if we give people the permission to throw off all the things they're ‘supposed to do’ with investing and philanthropy, the possibilities open up. We've been given messages from the mainstream financial sector that investments have to do this, or this is what philanthropy looks like, and we fall into those ruts that we have developed.

And if we can relax, and give ourselves permission to not have to fit into those frames, there is so much more that we can do.”

— Esther Park | Cienega Capital | CREO 2022b

“We're seeing young guys in their late twenties running big operations, and not just coming and talking about the farming operation, but their whole life in general. Because if you don't get that right, it’s gonna suffer on the farming operation.

So it's a whole of life approach. And the goals that they are kicking just absolutely blew me away.”

— Ian Haggerty Prospect Pastoral Co | The RegenNarration Podcast with Anthony James, episode 142, 2022.

Knowledge

Knowledge and learning are critical for regenerative transitions — to build niches of competence, legitimacy, accessibility and hands-on application (Sustainable Table 2020).

Currently, systemic lock-ins face the development and dissemination of knowledge that sits outside the conventional agricultural domain. There is a paucity of investment in the science around regenerative agriculture in comparison to conventional agriculture (ref). Growing the knowledge base of regeneration is an area that needs investment, and will for some time.

We heard from multiple sources that we need significant investment in regenerative agricultural science in universities, but also in applied and farmer-led research. Closely coupled with this is investment to strengthen and thread the social infrastructures for learning through peer learning networks, knowledge sharing, participatory forums and knowledge commons.

It's important to emphasise that this learning and knowledge development is not just a task for industry. The investment community needs to develop regenerative thinking and practices through cross-pollination with on-the-ground practitioners, and other fields of regenerative work, including overseas thought and practice leadership in the finance sector.

“I remember speaking to Elaine Ingham in 2006. And she said, ‘Listen, do what you do. Because the science will take 10 to 15 years to catch up. By the time I've done all the replications and get it to a stage of being able to put it out in the wider community, a lot of time is gonna pass.’ She said, ‘You can't afford to wait for that, you’re gonna have to keep running with what you're doing — just observe and record as best you can.’”

— Di Haggerty | Prospect Pastoral Co, |The RegenNarration Podcast with Anthony James, episode 142, 2022

There is a range of areas needing multiple forms of investment.

Build Legitimacy

Philanthropy needs to help hurry public funding along by continuing to build the legitimacy and evidence base around the impacts of regenerative practice — through funding cutting-edge applied research, learning networks, forums and knowledge commons.

Progressive Public Funding

Public funding needs to be progressive enough to step into the regenerative realm. At the moment, in Australia, it remains somewhat rare for governments at federal or state levels to fund regenerative research or knowledge development. This is slowly changing.

Investment & Investor Readiness Incubators

We heard that there is a need to invest in bridging the knowledge and skill gap for regenerative innovators and businesses to become investment ready. But remember — this isn't business as usual, this is regenerative business — so we need incubator/investment readiness programs that aren't going to apply old-school structures to this emerging field of play.

We also heard that just as important as investment readiness is ‘investor readiness’ (Hannant, 2022) - so that investors come to the table with an understanding of, or at least a willingness to engage with, regenerative values and complexity. In response to this, Sustainable Table is in the early stages of developing collaborative initiatives to build readiness across both industry and investors.

Regenerative Supply Chain Programs

There is a role for private capital to invest in clothing or food companies that want to shift to regenerative supply chains. A great example of this is General Mills which recognised that they needed to develop the knowledge base of growers to transition their pipeline. They are investing in programs that drive change in farmer practice, measurement and data collection, and market infrastructure to make a regenerative supply system possible (General Mills 2022).

Collaborative Knowledge Sharing & Capacity Building

Another critical investment need is to support and embed the collaborative knowledge sharing and capacity building that is playing a key role in driving innovation across the system. We heard that a lot of our 'keystone' actors in the regenerative movement are spending huge amounts of time and resources on sharing their learnings and building the capacity of other emerging stakeholders requiring guidance and seeking support.

This collaborative, generous activity is having a deep impact. It builds knowledge commons and limits mistake replication and duplication of activities but it takes a toll on the organisations trying to do all the broader systemic support work while continuing to run their own enterprise/initiative.

This work needs investment to enable the ongoing collaborative growth of the sector and to avoid burnout.

“There’s no recipe for restoring soil health, so what we need to invest in is farmer capability to understand what’s happening for themselves.

This lets farmers diagnose soil health issues, make informed decisions about land management practices, observe the results and adapt accordingly.

Providing tools and frameworks isn't enough. What we all need, and farmers are no different, is community around us to share what we're observing, to bounce ideas and learnings off each other.”

— Eli Court Soils for Life | Interview 2022 

To conclude with a final key point on investing in knowledge — it is a catalytic node for unlocking other forms of capital.

We heard this frequently throughout our conversations. RCS Project Pioneer shared that they used State and Federal funding for grazier education and peer support programs, building the confidence of farmers across the Great Barrier Reef catchments to then invest their own money into infrastructure and systems, far outstripping the original public investment. We heard from Fibreshed in the USA about a similar catalytic spark, where philanthropic funding of educational work with large clothing companies led to one of the largest lifestyle brands in the world creating a regenerative pillar in their business, and investing time and money in creating a regenerative fibre supply chain for their products.

Knowledge enables, grows, deepens and extends across regenerative systems — investing in knowledge has a multiplier effect.

“We need business incubators and investors that have a malleable mindset and are willing to meet our people where they are at.

To sit down and go, ok this is your aspiration, this is where you want to go, what does that look like for you?

To go on a journey with them, understand where they are coming from, and what success looks like in their mind.

The mentality or aspirations of our community members could be, 'I just want local food security for my community’ or, ‘I want to provide to the regional IGA and to be able to do it sustainably.’

All have environmental and social benefits for people, community and Country.

But if business incubators are saying 'no, that's not viable, you need to get bigger and keep on scaling' — that's not going to work.”

— Josh Staines Black Duck Foods | Interview 2022

Story

Finally, we need to invest in storytelling — that fundamental shaper and weaver of cultural shifts, capable of growing market awareness and demand and awakening industry interest, while also diving deeper into the work of shifting values and mind- scapes across our communities.

Time and again through our conversations and research we heard how story can:

• Connect us to tree, river, earth
• Awaken awareness of the damage being done, of our role in that damage, and our interdependence
• Inspire us through hearing about what is possible and what others are doing
• Connect us to others we can learn from, partner with, and walk beside

The work of storytelling takes a myriad of different forms, suited to different capital flows.

• Philanthropy plays a critical role in supporting high-quality storytelling with the ability to reach large sections of the community. Some examples of this include the work of folk like Farmers Footprint Australia, The Regenerators and the evolving body of engaging media and film they are creating, or the series of rural-focused articles the Vincent Fairfax Foundation has sponsored in The Guardian Australia.
• Private investment from stakeholders and community members is also driving a suite of storytelling activities through mechanisms like Patreon, which a range of podcasters are using to democratically finance their storytelling work.
• There is also considerable opportunity for private investment to support emerging regenerative businesses and brands across the supply chain to embed powerful storytelling within their marketing and communications.

"I've seen examples in the regen space of storytelling going nowhere because arguably it's not of the quality needed to reach and appeal to audiences at scale.

So there's huge potential for philanthropy, and investment to enable our network of some of the best commercial directors and filmmakers in the world to apply their skills to telling these stories.

They want to do this kind of work but the money isn't there, so with funding you could create compelling, high quality content, broker deals with streaming platforms, get some impactful stories out there and start to catalyse change."

— Dave Murphy Brand & Creative Lead at Farmer's Footprint | Director at ReWild Projects I Interview 2022 

“Those systems (current agricultural systems) are a train.

It's thermodynamics, there's energy in the current system - in the big slaughterhouses, in the big machinery.

And that's not to say I’m positing that the issue is wrapped up completely in big versus small.

To see change in current systems, to knock them a little bit in a different direction does require igniting the imagination.

And to do that you have to be able to speak and listen to stories.

To say this is my story and then be willing to hear theirs.”

— Rebecca Burgess Fibreshed | Interview 2022

This article is an extract from Regenerating Investment in Food and Farming: A Roadmap.