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Investing in Sustainable Agriculture: Landscape Review for Impact Investors

On October 19th, GRR and FTI co-hosted a panel featuring investment managers who shared their perspectives and strategies in evaluating sustainable agriculture investments.

October 25, 2021

It is estimated that close to 50 percent of the carbon in the Earth’s soils has been released into the atmosphere over the past centuries, due to conventional agricultural practices that feed our unsustainable food system. Bringing that carbon back into the soil through regenerative agriculture is one of the greatest opportunities to address human and climate health, along with the financial well-being of farmers.

As impact investors, we feel it is a critical time to deploy private capital to create the systems-level change needed in order to address the challenges impacting our climate, soil, farmers and communities.​​​​​​ In collaboration with community partner and wealth advisory firm, Fiduciary Trust International, GRR’s Jessie Tang (Principal & Head of Strategic Initiatives) and Olivia Tabah (Investment Associate) along with FTI’s Frances Aderhold, developed, researched and prepared a Sustainable Agriculture Landscape Review for Impact Investors that addresses the following:

  1. Scope and challenge of sustainable agriculture.
  2. The role of private capital in addressing these issues.
  3. A framework to assess the impact of particular investment opportunities.
  4. Subset of investment opportunities that exists in sustainable agriculture.

On October 19th, GRR and FTI co-hosted a panel featuring investment managers who shared their perspectives and strategies in evaluating sustainable agriculture investments. Renée Vassilos (Director of Agriculture Innovation, The Nature Conservancy), Robyn O’Brien ( Co-Founder, Managing Director at rePlant Capital) and Andrew Howell (Vice President, Food & Agriculture Private Equity at Ceres Partners) joined the panel, moderated by Frances Aderhold (Research Associate, Sustainable Investing at Fiduciary Trust International) and shared tangible insights into the impactful role of private capital in developing regenerative land-based food systems. 

Sustainable and regenerative agriculture are key focus areas for us and our organizations. If you have investment opportunities and other resources to share, please contact us directly.

A recording of Zoom event is available here. We also encourage you to read the full research report: Private Capital Solutions for a Sustainable Food System in the United States.