May 28, 2026 | written by Liz Umlas

With a very busy month behind us, we’ve now had a chance to pull together some reflections on our Soil Wealth Capital Convening, which we held in Durham on April 22, Earth Day – and Croatan Institute’s 12th birthday. With a full house of 60 engaged and energized participants, the one-day event exceeded our expectations and gave us plenty of ideas about how to improve our work, including gatherings like these. In this Croatan View, we’d like to share a summary and a few takeaways.
The objective of the convening was to bring together land stewards, technical assistance providers and investors to showcase wins and identify gaps in food, forestry and fiber system transformation. Distressed, rural areas of the Southeastern U.S. have been overlooked for agricultural investment, yet there is a wealth of innovative, skilled land stewards seeking capital to expand ecological practices and equitable value chains. The event was an opportunity to bridge North Carolina Soil Wealth Areas needs and foster connections between these practitioners and non-extractive capital.

The day’s agenda provided a range of topics and formats, with extra space set aside for relationship-building between sessions. Most participants were from the Southeast; others came from as far away as California, South Dakota and Massachusetts. After welcoming remarks from Piedmont Fibershed and Self-Help (which also generously hosted the event), the audience heard from members of the inaugural North Carolina Soil Wealth Areas cohort of farmers and land stewards, who brought their regenerative agriculture success stories from the field and spoke about where investment could be most strategically placed. Next was an open discussion with capital providers, including a farmland investor and two CDFIs, who highlighted effective strategies for catalyzing investment in regenerative farming as well as the challenges they face in doing so.

A highlight of the day was the “farmer pitch” session, where three Soil Wealth Areas cohort farmers shared their aspirations to expand regenerative efforts, followed by a lively discussion with the audience. In the final session, several capital providers, ranging from private debt to real assets, had a chance to showcase the financial services their organizations offer. During the day, farmers also had an opportunity to book 1:1 sessions with technical assistance providers and gather resources from table exhibitors. The Institute’s work spanning “financial health to soil wealth” was a throughline brought into relief by the land steward speakers in particular.

In its carefully curated sessions and its diversity of participants, the convening was a tangible representation of Croatan Institute’s commitment to making meaningful connections among land stewards, technical assistance providers and others in the regenerative value chain, and aligned capital, which for us means investors who walk in partnership with farmers and strive to address challenges such as borrowers’ need for longer timelines and non-extractive conditions.

This was also a day for storytelling, and the farmer pitch session was a hit for several reasons. The speakers gave presentations both polished and passionate that brought their stories to life. These included a farmer, artist, educator and community health organizer with a keen interest in building circular economies and honoring Black craft traditions; a silvopastoral farmer working to connect pig farmers to agroforestry and to pilot a meat CSA model; and a farmer and former chef who started a seed, tea and herb import company rooted in the agroecology of his family’s ancestral homeland of Nigeria. Each speaker brought a level of hope and energy to the room that felt like a balm in these trying times. And their presentations made clear that, besides their profound connection to the land, they are also embedded in their communities, contributing in myriad ways to the health and well-being of those communities well beyond their “day jobs.”

One more takeaway from the day: It’s not necessarily easy to bring people from all along the regenerative agriculture value chain together into one room. Different stakeholders may use language that doesn’t always resonate with others; they may have diverging needs and goals. But the advantages of doing so, in the form of building trust and relationships, hearing directly from each other and breaking down silos, outweigh the challenges.

These were some of the insights Institute staff gained from our Earth Day event, and they will serve us well as we think about how we can do better in convening and partnering with members from along the food, forestry and fiber value chains, finding the right formats to elicit much-needed candid exchanges and ensuring every voice in the room is heard.