June 8, 2017

In the dynamic agricultural sector, demand for crops that meet specific positive social, environmental, climate, and economic objectives is currently outstripping supply, and investments are needed to grow these value chains. Today, Acting Chief of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Leonard Jordan announced $700,000 in funding through the USDA Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) program to a multi-sector partnership, led by Chicago-based environmental nonprofit Delta Institute, aimed at mobilizing capital for these impact investments.

With CIG funding, and in-kind matching contributions from private sector and nonprofit partners, the project will enable investments in, and increase the scale of, regenerative agriculture, a system of practices that promote soil health and restore the natural function of ecosystems while maintaining crop yields. The wide-scale adoption of regenerative agriculture is poised to provide durable solutions to a range of challenges facing our rural and urban communities, yet investment is currently hampered by high transaction costs, limited data about economic and environmental returns, poorly understood risk profiles, and limited coordination between sources of capital.

“Croatan Institute is pleased to join Delta Institute in this important project that will mobilize new forms of investment into regenerative agriculture,” said Joshua Humphreys, President and Senior Fellow of Croatan Institute. “This Conservation Innovation Grant reinforces the Institute’s deepening work on financing resilient agricultural value chains, including the Organic Agriculture Revitalization Strategy (OARS) and impact investing in sustainable food and agriculture across asset classes.”

The full press release is available at http://bit.ly/DeltaCIG1.

For more information, contact Joshua Humphreys at josh [@] croataninstitute.org.