US Forest Service Awards Soil Wealth Areas $1.9M
We are excited to announce the Soil Wealth program and key partners have been awarded $1.9 million from the USDA Forest Service!
Soil Wealth Areas
Soil Wealth Areas are new special purpose financing districts that help connect farmers and entrepreneurs with technical assistance and mission-aligned capital providers. This work recognizes the value of social and environmental benefits associated with conservation, equitable food and farming systems, regenerative agroecology, and resilient rural communities.
Soil Wealth Areas build upon the successes of other agricultural districts, such as conservation districts and farmland protection districts. They are inherently place-based and locally governed by diverse groups of regional practitioners and stakeholders, including farmers, agricultural cooperatives, conservation and community-led organizations, value-chain businesses, food hubs, food and farming advocacy groups, food policy councils, researchers, and other aligned local and regional initiatives.
Our Approach
By being based in place, Soil Wealth Areas can be more responsive to the needs of local producers and entrepreneurs and help ensure that capital providers interested in investing are aligned with the imperatives of more ecologically resilient and socially inclusive food and agricultural systems.
In close collaboration and consultation with a growing group of partners, Croatan Institute has analyzed the feasibility of developing Soil Wealth Areas in multiple regions around the United States. Based on these assessments and pilot projects, we are now working collaboratively with partners on the implementation of Soil Wealth Areas in specific places, including in North Carolina in the South and Wisconsin in the Midwest, and we are exploring further opportunities to establish them on the West Coast and in the Northeast.
The initial feasibility assessment for Soil Wealth Areas from 2020 to 2022 was funded by a major Conservation Innovation Grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and a growing group of mission-aligned philanthropic funders. Findings from our feasibility phase can be found in “Soil Wealth Areas: Place-based Financing for Conservation, Rural Communities, and Regenerative Agriculture.”
For more information about establishing Soil Wealth Areas in your region or learn more about this initiative, please contact us.
Project Initiatives and Outputs
Soil Wealth Report
This report aims to quantify the current investment landscape surrounding regenerative agriculture and cultivate an understanding of how investors can ...
Soil Wealth Areas: Place-based Financing for Conservation, Rural Communities, and Regenerative Agriculture
This report summarizes the results of a major USDA-funded assessment of the feasibility of developing a new place-based financing district ...
North Carolina Soil Wealth Areas
Soil Wealth Areas are new place-based financing districts that connect regenerative agriculture producers and value chain businesses with aligned capital ...
Financial Health Investment Project
This project aims to increase the financial health of Black and other minority farmers and landowners through online financial coaching ...
2025 Soil Wealth Areas Cohort Launches
The 2025 Soil Wealth Areas cohort welcomes 10 farms across North Carolina for a year-long journey to expand community wealth ...
Project Partners & Funders
Soil Wealth Areas are being developed with a diverse and growing group of place-based partners, funders, investors, farmers, rural development and community organizations, and technical advisors.
The initial USDA-funded feasibility phase of work formally integrated feedback from 40 farms across more than 25,800 acres in North Carolina, northern California, Oregon, Virginia, and Wisconsin, including Bender Farms, Crews Family Farm, Free Union Farms, Miss Grace Farms, Oliver’s Agroforest, 15 farms affiliated with Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative, and 19 farms affiliated with Agriculture Capital on the west coast.
Soil Wealth Areas have also been informed by a Working Group on Financing Farmers of Color and a related Financial Health Investment Project that provides financial technical assistance to cohorts of Black, Indigenous, and other farmers of color.
