Since our launch in 2020, Transformational Investing in Food Systems (TIFS) advocates for financial and business innovations that benefit farmers and nature. Using a food systems approach, we support investments in regenerative and agroecological solutions for climate, nature, and poverty.

2024 was a pivotal year! We gained tremendous momentum with our parallel strategies of demonstrating landscape-level investments that contribute to regeneration in food systems, while strengthening a global network of leaders who build financial innovations for resilience, health, and wealth. We expanded our team and deepened partnerships with values-aligned organizations to meet growing demand for our systems-based investing approach.

We also observed a marked increase in activity by financial institutions seeking to invest in businesses that scale regenerative approaches across landscapes. Regenerative is reaching a tipping point, and to scale responsibly requires re-defining the regenerative business case, developing methodologies that compare business as usual to regenerative systems, and creating models for the rapid diffusion and scaling of initiatives with proven systemic impact.

As we reflect on this year’s progress, we are excited to share highlights of major accomplishments and plans for 2025. In an increasingly unstable and unpredictable world, we continue our relentless pursuit for financing of businesses that provide solutions for food and nutrition security, dignified livelihoods for food producers, and resilient natural systems.

Accelerating Momentum in 2024

In 2024, TIFS focused on two strategic priorities: 

1. mobilize investors to activate financial capital; 

2. co-create financial innovations that increase capital flows to regenerative and agroecological innovators.

We executed these strategies through programs in focus geographies of North America and East Africa, and by convening leaders from food producers, finance, and business to co-create methodologies to accelerate the transition to regenerative food systems. Across our eight convenings in different locations in Kenya, USA, and Europe, we gathered more than 200 frontrunners from the farming, business, and finance communities to design strategies for investment of $100’s of millions into regenerative food systems globally. Below we share key accomplishments: 

The Missing Middle of Investing in Food Systems Transformation

There is significant capital in the global financial system seeking investable opportunities. TIFS plays a key role in removing systemic barriers by convening thought-leaders to develop solutions for the “Missing Middle” of food systems investing, to bridge the gap between the investment needs of aligned businesses and the requirements of private and public investors. TIFS saw increased focus on this issue and is proud to be leading the conversations to catalyse actions.

This year, TIFS convened thought leaders at the Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum (RFSI) in Brussels, RFSI Denver, and through three targeted “Missing Middle of Blue Foods” conversations (Miami, NYC, and Portland, Maine).

The outcomes of Missing Middle convenings in 2024 include: prototypes for solutions to finance regeneration at scale; participation by global financial institutions in efforts to connect regenerative investments to their natural capital portfolios; and a new initiative with partner Upwell Collaborative to focus attention on investable solutions in Blue Foods. TIFS breaks down silos by connecting businesses, farmers, and financial practitioners to address shared challenges. 

A US Midwest Strategy

TIFS is building a portfolio of strategic projects in the US Midwest to support a regenerative transition. At the request of farmer support organizations, companies, and financial institutions, TIFS conducted a Regenerative Agriculture Systems Review, which used a farmer and rancher-centric approach to identify and prioritize a set of critical investments to accelerate the transition. We interviewed over forty leaders working in the Red River Valley and Minnesota to understand existing partnerships that could be leveraged for better impact. 

Out of a larger pool of farmer-focused and systems-level solutions, TIFS is focused on flexible and accessible financing, infrastructure for market access, crop insurance, and actuarial data solutions aimed at unlocking finance.

Crop insurance is a key barrier to diversifying commodity systems. Crop insurance also provides an opportunity to price the risk of “business as usual” and to create investment structures to invest in crop diversification. TIFS is forming the Resilience in Agriculture, Lending and Insurance Coalition (RALIC), a pre-competitive group of stakeholders from insurance, finance, farmer support, and multiple business sectors to develop new actuarial datasets, a financing mechanism, and market orchestration for broader adoption of climate smart and regenerative practices. 

In November, TIFS convened a workshop in Minneapolis titled “Financing Regenerative Food Systems in the US Midwest.” Participants, including producers and businesses, explored opportunities to build viable markets for regenerative production and identified financing gaps. As a result of this meeting, TIFS is prototyping a Missing Middle financing mechanism to support investments in polycropping, silvopasture, and agroforestry in the Upper Midwest.

The outcomes of our US Midwest work include an emergent collaborative strategy for financing regenerative transitions, a draft financing mechanism for diverse crop rotations, silvopasture, and agroforestry, and the creation of an initiative to de-risk the transition by developing robust actuarial data on regenerative agriculture adoption.

East Africa

In 2023, TIFS conducted a study of investment funds that are investing in food and agriculture in East Africa. Out of 50 relevant funds, 23 participated in the study. Following the study, we invited these fund managers and investors to participate in a Community of Practice on Agroecological Entrepreneurship in East Africa (CoP).

In February 2024, TIFS and Biovision Foundation convened fund managers and other stakeholders at the Sankalp Africa Summit in Nairobi. An outcome of the gathering is that TIFS now supports a group of partners to further develop the CoP to increase and improve the financing of agroecology (AE). Given the early stage of market maturity for businesses that incorporate AE principles and regenerative approaches, a community of frontrunners among finance providers and financial practitioners is needed to develop strategic actions that can accelerate the maturity of agroecological enterprises (AEEs). Ultimately, the goal is to increase availability of appropriate forms of finance for AEEs in East Africa. 

The outcome of our East Africa work is the establishment of the AEE CoP and the identification of priorities that will shape the Financing AEEs Working Group’s 2025 agenda and solutions-oriented “design sprints.”

Lighthouse Initiatives 

With Metabolic, and support from The Rockefeller Foundation, TIFS created an approach for the development of high-impact initiatives that demonstrate how to unlock capital at scale through innovative landscape level finance mechanisms, or “lighthouses,” aimed at accelerating the transition to deep regenerative agriculture. 

In July 2024, we co-convened a week-long session at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, to build systemic initiatives and financial innovations to unlock scale in regenerative agriculture. The event brought together a diverse group of investors, companies, and farmers from Brazil, East Africa, India, and the US Midwest to identify replicable initiatives and develop scalable financing structures. 

Utilizing and building upon key financial structures laid out in the report, Financing for Regenerative Agriculture, co-authored by TIFS and Pollination, stakeholders proposed activities to help move regenerative agriculture along the maturity curve within a particular geography, while building an ecosystem that connects local actors to global networks of producers, financiers, and market players. 

Several participants commented on the immense potential of collective action by stakeholders from business, farming, and finance—highlighting the transformative impact of TIFS’ convenings. The Bellagio gathering resulted in new investment initiatives. Notably, Bellagio participants helped design the Amana Fund, a $1.2B agroforestry palm oil lighthouse in Brazil, and informed the finance mechanism for India’s Community Managed Natural Farming, which is securing $120M for its next growth phase. 

As a critical outcome, TIFS is turning the investment structures created during the Bellagio meeting into replicable models for scaling proof-of-concept “lighthouses,” with the goal of enabling institutional capital to enter the regenerative agriculture finance market.

Gratitude and Looking Forward

TIFS work to achieve our mission is complex. Our work requires innovation and setting precedents; precedents that have the potential to change how financing decisions are made now and in the future. In 2025, TIFS will double down on activities that mobilize financial capital for regenerative transitions. 

• In the US Midwest, advance three interconnected bodies of work: a private crop insurance initiative to derisk farmer transitions and generate actuarial data on regenerative systems; a farmer financing model that represents a paradigm shift in farmer finance; and a financing mechanism that attracts new capital to middle infrastructure businesses.
• In Kenya and East Africa, support the AEE CoP, support the development of the Kenya Agroforestry Lighthouse Program, which aims to transition East African coffee farmers from monoculture to diversified agroforestry systems, and source new lighthouses within the region. 

• Continue our project to seed new Lighthouses and deepen existing opportunities in key geographies, including Brazil, Kenya, Indonesia, India, and the US Midwest. This includes the development of innovative approaches to link regenerative agriculture and school meals.
• Expand Missing Middle strategies to create space for global financial institutions to develop collective intelligence and create shared strategies at the intersections of food systems and natural capital.
• With Upwell Collaborative, continue the Blue Foods Missing Middle activities to engage stakeholders and elevate the stories of successful entrepreneurs. 

TIFS was incubated as an allied initiative of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food and currently maintains a fiscal sponsorship with Meridian Prime. We are grateful for our continued partnership with the Global Alliance. As we continue to grow, we recognize the opportunity to establish our own independent organization in 2025. 

Our amazing team and partners are key to our success. Together we create opportunities to build a market for a regenerative, equitable, and climate-resilient food future. TIFS’ work is needed more than ever and we look forward to what emerges this year. We invite you to join us to identify scalable regenerative initiatives and support the creation, implementation, and investment in financial innovations for regenerative and agroecological futures. 

If you are interested in getting involved or connecting with us, please reach out to Initiative Director Rex Raimond at rraimond@tifsinitiative.org and follow us on Linkedin.

A huge thank you to our funders and sponsors in 2024: 

Builders Initiative, Thread Fund, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Biovision Foundation, Pollination, Metabolic, OpenTEAM, Woodcock Foundation, and others. 

Onward, 

Your Partners at TIFS