During the TIFS launch, we had the privilege of discussing several frameworks for investing in food systems.

• Soil Wealth as a Tool for Regenerative Investment. Joshua Humphreys, Croatan Institute, presented the findings of the Soil Wealth report, which quantifies the current investment landscape surrounding regenerative agriculture and indicates how investors can allocate investments across asset classes to further the potential of regenerative agriculture for mitigating climate change, improving soil health, and building community resilience. The report presents analysis of nearly 70 investment mechanisms, instruments and approaches. It offers recommendations for investors working within cash and cash equivalents, fixed income, real assets, public equity, private equity and venture capital markets. Croatan is working with partners to apply one of those investment mechanisms; a placed-based financial model.   

• Holistic Food Systems Evaluation, TEEB AgriFood. Lauren Baker, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, described the True Cost Accounting framework developed by TEEBAgriFood, a project housed at the United Nations Environmental Programme, and led by The Economics of the Ecosystems and Biodiversity Office. TEEBAgriFood aims to show the cost of food production, distribution and consumption when environmental, health, social and cultural externalities and impacts are calculated. TEEBAgriFood created a comprehensive food systems evaluation framework that uses natural, social, human, and produced forms of capital to reveal food systems dependencies and externalities, both negative and positive.

• Health Impacts of Food Systems | January 2020. Patty Fong, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, described current research to compile diverse evidence about the positive health benefits and impacts of food systems, identify success stories that demonstrate how food systems can be managed for health, and highlight policies that promote health. The work builds on an earlier comprehensive overview of the negative health impacts of food systems and demonstrates the need to change narratives: from prioritizing yields, calories and treating ill health to prioritizing good human, ecological and animal health. Objective indicators – including for the financial sector – are needed on positive health impacts of sustainable food systems.