Vertical farming
By Katie Macc, Sorenson Impact Institute Chief Operating Officer
A globalized food system has its obvious benefits staring at us from the grocery store shelves: fresh red strawberries no matter the season and flash-frozen seafood available thousands of miles from bodies of water. Access to seasonal and regional ingredients, no matter where we are, is so convenient it can be easy to overlook the negative impacts.
The list of drawbacks is long: monocrops depleting our soils and driving a loss in biodiversity; complex, petroleum-intensive supply chains; and produce bred to survive long-haul trucking rather than provide taste or nutrition. But there are solutions, however challenging they may be. Shifting to global agricultural practices that help regenerate the Earth while still nourishing people around the world will require a combination of regenerative solutions, innovations, and the right types and amounts of funding.
Recently, I experienced firsthand a few of the challenges of our complex food supply chains during a month-long local food challenge. The experience left me feeling intensely connected to the land where my family’s food came from and the hands that produced it. I was not expecting, however, the enormous time commitment involved in acquiring and preparing items for our meals. While the lessons from that month-long challenge were personal to me and my family, they impressed upon me the challenges involved in our food and agriculture systems and the ripples of social and environmental impact they create.
Through my work with the Sorenson Impact Institute, I have the opportunity to learn from leaders in the food and agriculture sector who are pursuing more sustainable and regenerative food and agricultural systems. Renée Vassilos, Director of Agriculture Innovation at The Nature Conservancy, is working with early-stage technology companies that aim to expand and accelerate the use of regenerative agriculture practices. She admits to being “mildly obsessed with soil” and counts the soil microbiome as “the most impactful part of our ecosystem.”
“The introduction of cover crops and the re-introduction of trees (agroforestry)—to share two examples—add cost and complexity to farm systems,” Vassilos says. “This complexity, in addition to the growing labor constraints, requires the development of tools that make it cost-effective.”
At GoodSAM Foods, Founder and CEO Heather Terry prioritizes direct relationships with farmers around the world to create equitable chocolate, coffee, nuts, and other snacks. Terry says GoodSAM Foods has developed a human-first approach that respects time-honored practices.
“We prioritize establishing trust on the ground and collaborating closely with each community to meet their specific needs and foster growth,” she says. “Understanding cultural practices and maintaining ecological balance benefits every stakeholder, from the farmer who plants the seed to the end consumer.”
Terry and Vassilos will join me at the 2024 Sorenson Impact Summit to discuss these topics amongst more than 200 like-minded impact practitioners and thought leaders. Here, Terry and Vassilos share more about their impact-minded work and their hopes for the future of our food and agricultural systems.
How does your organization support the expansion and acceleration of regenerative agriculture practices to help transform global food systems?
Heather Terry: GoodSAM operates exclusively within regeneratively farmed systems across eight countries worldwide. We source all commercially viable crops from these farms, ensuring that farmers benefit from a year-round stream of income. This diverse sourcing strategy allows us to offer a wide range of products, not limiting us to a single type of crop. You can find GoodSAM products in the nut, coffee, fruit, and chocolate aisles of thousands of grocery retailers throughout the United States.
Renée Vassilos: The Agriculture Innovation team within The Nature Conservancy manages a pool of venture capital that we have been investing in early-stage agricultural technology companies with a focus on our soil health-building goals and the necessary large-scale shift toward regenerative production systems. Our investment thesis is focused on identifying solutions that have the promise to scale one or a multitude of the practices our scientific research has demonstrated are successful in achieving a regenerative agriculture system — for example, the use of cover crops and crop rotation, reducing soil disruption from tillage, and optimizing chemical and fertilizer inputs.
How does your work facilitate partnerships with growers/agricultural operators to scale their knowledge and experience?
Heather Terry: At GoodSAM Foods, partnerships are our lifeblood. We don’t simply operate a supply chain; we cultivate a dynamic supply network built on shared knowledge and mutual benefits for all stakeholders. Our approach centers on collaboration, leveraging the expertise and insights of our growers to tackle critical issues such as yield optimization, soil health, biodiversity, and climate change. Together, we work toward sustainable solutions that benefit everyone involved.
Renée Vassilos: As The Nature Conservancy looks at the scientific research around how we build resilient agricultural production systems, what is required is going to introduce complexity. The introduction of cover crops and the re-introduction of trees (agroforestry) — to share two examples — add cost and complexity to farm systems.
This complexity, in addition to the growing labor constraints, requires the development of tools that make it cost-effective or, in the most ideal world, the profitable choice to implement these practices on farms. For this to be true, we need new tools that make use of the most promising technologies. For example, we need tools that require less labor to support farm operations shifting towards regenerative production systems.
The Nature Conservancy’s Agriculture Innovation strategy is dedicated to investing in and piloting innovative tools that have the potential to deliver the necessary positive environmental impact and profitability to farm operations from the adoption of regenerative agriculture production practices.
Can you share an example of a challenge you/your partners have encountered while working to advance regenerative agriculture practices and how you have addressed/plan to address it?
Heather Terry: One of our biggest challenges is navigating the race to [regenerative] certification. While certification itself can be beneficial and we support it in certain instances, the process has proven more complicated when it comes to regenerative practices. This complexity arises from the tendency of larger organizations to impose their standards on smallholder farmers and Indigenous communities, who have been practicing regenerative farming for decades if not centuries. These communities have long embraced sustainable methods, making external certification often unnecessary and burdensome.
Standards are essential in regions like the U.S., where agricultural subsidies and large-scale farming have led to fragile ecosystems. However, in the Global South, smallholders and Indigenous groups face a different reality. Here, certification often reflects a colonial mindset, dictating practices to those who already embody regenerative principles. Additionally, the costs associated with certification are prohibitively high for these communities.
We believe that until certification processes include global representation and offer ways to underwrite costs for smallholder and indigenous farmers, we cannot fully support these efforts. Instead, we maintain detailed records through our auditing system, which has been endorsed by all our GoodSAM retail partners. This approach allows us to support our farmers’ continuous improvement.
Regeneration is an ongoing journey, not a fixed goal. It requires perpetual effort and adaptation, and we remain committed to fostering this spirit of infinite improvement.
Renée Vassilos: One challenge identified by The Nature Conservancy’s team is the financial risk of adopting regenerative farming practices on farm and ranch operations. To attempt to address this, we invested in and are piloting with an agriculture fintech company Growers Edge, a crop warranty program to de-risk practice adoption. The Nature Conservancy is working with Growers Edge to apply this program to cover crop adoption and nutrient management using their Crop Plan Warranty. This warranty, backed by detailed financial and crop insurance data, assumes the risk for farm operations, providing them with financial security to help make change.
Can you share an example of how your organization is working to drive effective, adaptable, scalable systemic change needed in the regenerative agriculture space?
Heather Terry: How we build our supply network is something that is accessible to every organization on the planet. Large-scale businesses and multinationals often overlook the importance of integrating with local communities and cultures to achieve positive outcomes. At GoodSAM, we prioritize establishing trust on the ground and collaborating closely with each community to meet their specific needs and foster growth. Understanding cultural practices and maintaining ecological balance benefits every stakeholder, from the farmer who plants the seed to the end consumer.
Addressing climate change and ensuring a stable food supply are ongoing challenges that food companies must tackle. To overcome these issues, we believe in working collaboratively with farmers, learning from their experiences, and honoring their traditions. This approach is not about flashy technology; it’s about meaningful human connections and respect for time-honored practices. Together, we can create sustainable solutions that benefit everyone involved.
