These grants will establish the foundation to rapidly scale regenerative approaches by 2030.
During the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), The Rockefeller Foundation announced more than $11 million in grants to ten organizations scaling Indigenous and regenerative agriculture practices around the world. The evidence makes clear the central role food systems can play in mitigating climate change. The funding will help scale the development, data analysis, financing, and education around regenerative agricultural practices, which can improve global food systems and mitigate the global food crisis.
Regenerative agriculture, a process with roots in Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge and food systems, takes a holistic approach to production that starts with the soil and includes the health of people, animals, and the environment. Together, these grants will establish the foundation to rapidly scale regenerative approaches by 2030 from Indigenous agroforestry in the Amazon to carbon-market financing of smallholder farmers in Africa and elsewhere.
“Regenerative agriculture offers a needed alternative to dominant, extractive food systems that have threatened people and planet alike,” said Sara Farley, Vice President of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Food Portfolio. “Our goal is to develop the know-how, networks and innovations needed to realize the full potential of regenerative agriculture at a moment of crises and climate change.”
Food systems produce about one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and agricultural expansion accounts for almost 90 per cent of global deforestation. Conversely, new research finds that transitioning to more sustainable food systems could contribute about 20 per cent of the global mitigation needed by 2050 to keep temperature increases below the 1.5°C target. This change could also improve the nutrition and health of 3.1 billion people who currently cannot afford a healthy diet.
The flagship grant is to the Meridian Institute, which will expand upon the work of Regen10, a global coalition galvanized to answer the question of what it would take to produce 50 per cent of the world’s food in ways that benefit people, nature, and climate by 2030. This effort will directly support food producers and landscape stewards to adopt and scale regenerative practices and work collaboratively with other organizations to better define and measure the impacts of regenerative agriculture. By bridging outcomes measurement with landscape-level demonstrations, Regen10 will support landscape leaders practising or advancing regenerative agriculture to access financing, technical assistance, and data.
