Regenerative agriculture is rapidly moving from a niche farming philosophy to a mainstream business strategy as food and beverage brands look to strengthen supply chains and meet climate-driven sustainability goals – but scaling beyond pilot programs remains complex, requiring reliable, profitable systems that can operate at commercial scale.
Bridging the gap between ambition and execution to successfully scale regenerative agriculture requires more than measurable farm-level improvements – it also depends on capital allocation, procurement systems, farmer economics and the commercial realities facing finished food brands.
As a longtime regen ag leader, the Rodale Institute is helping connect the dots by strengthening its role at the intersection of research, education and the commercial adoption of regenerative practices. The recent addition of former Goldman Sachs executive Matthew Grand as chief strategy officer reflects a growing recognition that scaling regenerative systems requires not only agronomic expertise, but also financial strategy, investment literacy and a clearer link between farming outcomes and business decision-making.
In this episode of FoodNavigator-USA’s Soup-To-Nuts podcast, Matthew Grand and Rodale Institute CEO Jeff Tkach discuss what it will take to move regenerative agriculture from fragmented pilots to scalable systems. They explore the role of capital and corporate strategy in accelerating adoption, the challenge of maintaining scientific rigor and farmer trust at scale, and how regenerative practices are beginning to intersect with the bottom lines of food and beverage brands – ultimately, reshaping how the industry thinks about sourcing, resilience and long-term value creation.
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Why this moment matters
In the past 10 to 15 years, Tkach explains, regenerative agriculture has quickly evolved from a loosely defined set of values to a commercial touchpoint for ingredient suppliers, certifiers, CPG brands and consumers. As the term gains awareness – and drives demand – it is increasingly being evaluated through a more practical lens: What benefits is it delivering at each point of the supply chain, what value do those hold and can it scale profitably, reliably and fast enough to meet supply chain and climate pressures?
“Today, 68 of the worlds top 100 food companies purport to have a regenerative agriculture strategy, but that word on its own means, frankly, everything and nothing,” Tkach said.
He explained “there is no true standard or definition to regenerative farming,” which is why in 2017 the Rodale Institute helped launch the Regenerative Organic Certification to help create and meet market demand by providing guidelines and context for the agricultural practices.
“Rodale sees agriculture as a spectrum. So, conventional farmers being on one side of that spectrum with a predominate chemical-GMO sort of approach. Regenerative would be next on that path where farmers begin to reduce their reliance on some of these chemical inputs and begin to embrace some of the regenerative practices, like reduced tillage and embracing cover crops and more diverse crop rotation. Organic would be further down that continuum and then regenerative organic would be all the way on the other end of that spectrum,” he explained.
Since the certification launched, he said, more than 22 million acres have met the ROC standards worldwide and some of the largest food brands have certified their products according to the guidelines.
Building better finance and operational systems to support regen agriculture
Given the speed with which regenerative agriculture has gained traction with farmers, companies and consumers, Grand added the challenge now is less about convincing companies to care about it, and more about building the financial and operational systems needed to support it.
To do this, he said, stakeholders must rethink how to measure the worth – and return on investment – of regenerative ag.
He explained traditional finance evaluates opportunities based on a simple risk and return calculus, but this isn’t sophisticated enough for a concept as complex as regenerative ag.
That is why, he argues, investors need “to stop asking questions like, how much will this cost us in the short term, and rather start asking, what is the cost of human health and to land and the vast majority of our food and agricultural assets that in a system that are embedded with chemicals and things that are unnatural to the human body? What is the true cost of that?”
He added that the risk model should be flipped on its head so that a more resilient system limits default risk and adverse investment outcomes.
Grand adds traditional finance often misunderstands regenerative agriculture because biological systems operate on a much longer timeline than many investment models are designed to accommodate.
For example, he explains, it takes three years to transition from conventional agriculture to certified organic and during that period farmers may have added expenses associated with new practices and their yields may fall. But they are not yet able to capitalize on the premium prices that organic certified can command and which would more than cover the additional costs.
But once farmers hit that three-year mark and qualify for certification, the economic and profit graphs start to go up and to the right – which Grand says is more compelling for investors.
The business case for brands beyond sustainability
The conversation about investing in regenerative agriculture also is changing inside major food companies, according to Tkach who notes CPGs increasingly are tying the practices to their procurement strategy, supply chain resilience and long-term input costs.
To help companies navigate these issues, Rodale Institute launched a national agronomy and consulting team of more than 30 employees who work with farmers and brands to establish and reach shared goals.
By setting measurable environmental outcomes on the farm, CPG marketers are more confident talking about the programs to consumers, who increasingly are interested in how their food is produced, he said.
“Multinational food companies are trying to move as fast as they can to respond to changes in consumer demand,” he added.
‘Regenerative agriculture is alpha to your bottom line’
As consumer interest in regenerative ag intensifies alongside the negative impacts of climate change, Grand says CPG companies should think about regenerative agriculture as a long-term business investment.
“Brands should consider regenerative agriculture as an investment, not an expense. You are investing in your supply chain. You are investing in your consumers. To put that in traditional finance terms, to me regenerative agriculture is alpha to your bottom line,” Grand explained.
“When a brand moves regenerative agriculture to its core, they are saying, ‘I am going to secure my long-term strategy by rebuilding the actual health of the land that feeds my customers,” he added.
Timing is essential
One of the biggest tensions is timing. Corporate sustainability targets often are measured quarterly or annually – even if goals are set for five, 10 or 20 years out. But measurable impact in regenerating the environment could take years. The risk then becomes companies abandoning initiatives and investments before they have a fair chance to reap the returns.
“You can’t force nature to move more regeneratively, more quickly. You can’t expedite regeneration,” Tkach said.
He acknowledged the wait for change is almost unbearable for many CPG companies.
Grand agreed, noting companies face growing fatigue around broad ESG language as well as political scrutiny and investor pressure to prove measurable outcomes. But, he adds, that is where the measurable outcomes of regenerative agriculture and certification come into play.
Tkach adds that the next 10 years could reshape the US food system as farmland changes hands and a new generation of producers enters agriculture.
He explained: “Our farmland is going through a massive shift over the next decade. Something like 50% of all farmland in the US is going to change hands in the next decade,” and those taking over want to farm differently.
While that change may feel fast to some, Grand argues it isn’t fast enough given the threat to the viability of the land if nothing improves.
“We have 50 plus harvests left in our lifetime,” which means the next 10 years will be critical for increasing regenerative agriculture to extend the usefulness of the land, he said.
He added: “There are a lot of great tailwinds happening in favor of regenerative agriculture, but to me, every year is getting much, much more important to us to meet this moment.”
