Farmers are the foundation of a regenerative food system, yet they still face massive barriers when it comes to implementing regenerative practices in the field.
A panel of farmers discussed some of these challenges at this week’s Regenerative Food Systems Investment (RFSI) Europe event in Brussels, and while the issues on the table were legion, a few stood out.
Access to land is a major challenge for farmers throughout Europe — particularly those just starting out.
“In the beginning we were kind of afraid to dream big because to buy a farm in the Netherlands was almost impossible,” explained panelist Iris Claessens, who has run 15-hectare Sierveld Farm for just a little over one year.
For Claessens, renting land quickly became a non-option as well. “As a farmer, you want to do a long-term investment, so if someone only promised you one year, it’s not enough,” she said. This is especially true for regenerative farming, where it takes years to restore soils and ecosystems. At one point, Claessens and her partners even considered relocating to France.
Despite these initial setbacks the team was eventually able to secure the farm thanks to Lenteland, a foundation that sets up small 10-25 hectares regenerative farms throughout the Netherlands. Its farms all sell their produce to local consumers on a community-supported agriculture (CSA) model and function as cooperatives, where ownership is shared among multiple farmers who also live on the land.
“In this way, we share the ownership, but we also kind of carry together the responsibility of this piece of land, and we take care of it together,” said Claessens. “This connection between the farm, the land, and the consumers is very important.”
Luke Hassell, CEO of The Story Farms in the UK, echoed this concern and suggested it ties directly to another major issue in agriculture in many countries: an aging farmer population.
“The biggest obstacle in the UK is probably the average age of the farmer [around 59],” he said during the panel. “Where are the youth? I feel really passionate about trying to enable that to happen, but we need these small farms [to do that].”
The Story Farms offers opportunities for such people to “allow people to become farmers that can’t afford to buy land,” he said. Younger farmers, “probably feel like they can’t achieve [the dream of farming] because they don’t own the field.”
Investors ‘don’t understand the language of nature’
Given the backdrop of the discussion was an investment conference, the topic soon came up.
“Do you understand where you can get access to capital?” an audience member asked of the panelists.
Panelist João Valente, a second-generation owner of Monte Silveira Farm in Portugal, explained to the audience how he had to “leave his comfort zone” to learn more about “complicated, corporate language” in order to attract more — and different — capital to his operation.
“I’ve talked with so many investors and impact investors, family offices, etc, etc. And unfortunately, no one seeks to understand the path of the farm. People want results fast . . . and they don’t understand that nature takes time.”
Hassell said Story Farms has so far only dabbled in crowdfunding, which it would do again if needed. “It does definitely help with the community you rely on to buy your produce and do the jobs you love. Borrowing money from the banks is something I’m trying to steer away from.”
“We don’t want any more debt,” added Valente.
As to non-traditional forms of capital for farmers, one audience participant asked, “What are investors waiting for?”
“I think the biggest obstacle is that they don’t understand the language of nature,” said Valente (a point immediately followed by a round of applause from the audience).
“They look at a farm from the financial perspective as an asset that’s going to have some revenue. That’s the mindset of investors.”
The fix? “Spend some time on the farms,” he said.
From romanticism to a viable form of farming
Most panels during the event have featured discussions on data and measurement as an important tool for scaling regenerative food systems and on the farmer panel, all the farmers highlighted the importance of collecting data and working with universities and research institutes to demonstrate the viability of regenerative agriculture to industry and investors.
Hasell said that data was crucial to move beyond the “romanticism” of regenerative agriculture and show other farmers that it can be profitable as an alternative to conventional farming.
Claessens talked about their need for more data before making decisions on the farm such as expansion.
Valente is taking matters into his own hands and has created what he calls Impact Hub to undertake research focused on soil health and ecosystem resilience, in collaboration with national and international researchers and scientific institutions.
“So I decided to create an Impact Hub with the tools that I have. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I had land, I had some houses, I had a lot of knowledge… We’ve been farming organic, no-till, for 20 years. We are, I think probably now, the ninth organic-certified farm in Europe and the only large-scale farm as regenerative, organic certified. So we’ve been on growth for a long time, and we can provide that knowledge [to show to others.]”
