Greetings and January 2022 Updates from TIFS

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Welcome to the first TIFS update of 2022. We kick-off a new year and look forward in anticipation. Anticipation of sharing the stories of entrepreneurs, farmers and their organizations, and other innovators that are transforming food systems, rolling out new food systems investing tools, and collaborating with our partners to continue building collective paths forward. You will find updates about our recent and planned work in the three pillars of our working strategy: engage; innovate; connect.

We are grateful for the growing number of partners that are spurring actions to align capital for better food system outcomes. These partnerships are an integral part of our strategy to deliver actions and create impact.

We ask that you scan the updates and contact us if you are interested in:

  • Sharing an investment case (or opportunity) with the TIFS Community (for more info, see the “Engage” section, below)
  • Participating in a demo of new food systems investing tools: Agroecology Criteria Tool for Business; and TIFS Food System Investment Fund Assessment (for more info, see the “Innovate” section, below)
  • Organizing joint events or publications about food systems investing with your organization or networks (for more info, see the “Connect” section, below)

We look forward to hearing from you and to our continued work together.

TIFS Progress Summary

Engage

TIFS goal is to grow the community of foundation and impact investors who provide flexible capital for innovative food and ag enterprises. We seek inspiration from first movers to raise awareness about and help others find pathways to align investments with values.

During the latter part of 2021, we delivered the following:

  • September: Biovision Foundation and TIFS held an independent side event to the UN Food Systems Summit “Investing in Food Systems Transformation.” More than 350 people from around the world and all relevant sectors participated in the event
  • October: Blog for the Global Alliance “The power of ‘True Value’ assessments for food system investments”
  • October: Speaker on the “Achieving Systemic Change: ESG Portfolios for the New Economy: Advocacy, Social Justice and Climate Risk” panel during the ESG for Impact conference.
  • November: Speaker on the “Investment and Finance for Healthy and Sustainable Diets” panel, during a session on Using Investment and True Cost Accounting as Levers for Food Systems Change, co-hosted by FoodTank, WWF and the Rockefeller Foundation during COP26
  • December: Co-authored an article with Jennifer Astone in Alliance Magazine’s Special Issue on Food Systems “Business as usual is a non-starter” highlighting current food system weaknesses and food businesses transforming food systems for healthy diets, people and planet.
  • December: Speaker on the “Counting the True Cost: How Understanding the Real Cost of Food Can Improve Nutrition for All” during the Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021. The side event was sponsored by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, WWF, TMG, WBCSD, and UN Nutrition.
  • December: Provided a webinar on Investing in Agroecological Enterprises for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). SDC invited four partner organizations who are planting the seeds for and/or are reaping the benefits of the agroecological approach.

In 2022, we will continue our targeted communications to raise awareness of food systems approaches to investing. We are currently engaging a communications consultant to help us refine and implement our communications plan. Engagement activities will include: 1:1 outreach to aligned investors and other stakeholders; TIFS Community meetings; and joint events with partner organizations. We also look forward to the publication of the Beacons of Hope Investment Cohort with the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.

Innovate

TIFS uses systems investing approaches, including True Cost Accounting frameworks, to assess food system outcomes of investments. Building on The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity Agrifood Framework (TEEBAgriFood), a scientifically validated framework for evaluating true costs of food systems, TIFS is developing tools to assess investment funds and enterprises and generate information about transformative investments.

TIFS has been working with partners on two food systems investing tools: a tool to assess the alignment of enterprises with the principles of agroecology; a tool to assess investment funds alignment with food systems transformation principles.

  • June 2021 – January 2022: Developed a draft Agroecology Criteria Tool for Business (B-ACT) with Biovision Foundation and Soil & More Impacts.
  • October 2021 – January 2022: Developed a draft open-source Food Systems Investment Funds Assessment tool with ISF Advisors and conducted a pilot with eight funds.

Our work with ISF Advisors has been guided by a 12-person Advisory Group. In addition, we asked Beyond Alpha to review the compatibility of the TIFS assessment tool with tools used by institutional investors. We asked Impact Institute to review the consistency of the TIFS tool with True Cost Accounting approaches for evaluating food system externalities.

In early 2022, we will meet with a range of stakeholders from foundations and aligned investors, asset managers, wealth advisors, enterprises, civil society, and service providers to “stress test” the assessment tool and organize demos for the TIFS Community. We need your input on how TIFS can best use the tool to activate capital and how others might want to use it. Please contact Rex if you would like to provide input.

We will continue to meet with the Advisory Group to develop a multi-pronged engagement strategy using the assessment tools. Already, we have heard that the funds assessment tool is “more cleverly simple than we imagined.”

Connect

TIFS uses food systems investing tools, information, and knowledge to bring together asset owners, asset managers, entrepreneurs, service providers, and civil society organizations to deepen understanding of transformational investments.

  • December: Building on the “Investing in Food Systems Transformation” event that was co-hosted with Biovision Foundation, TIFS and Biovision organized a Solutions Lab focused on co-designing an investment marketplace for agroecological enterprises.

To bring focus to this part of our work, we have set an internal goal for 2022 to activate investment of at least 10M$ by at least 5 foundations in aligned funds or enterprises. In 2022, we plan to continue gathering non-binding commitments from investors, assessing agroecological enterprises and private funds, and organizing investment deep dives. We will continue to explore feasibility of an investment boot camp as part of the investment deep dives.

To contribute to building the field, TIFS is playing an active role in the Financing the Transition Working Group of Funders for Regenerative Agriculture, the Finance Working Group of the Agroecology Coalition, an advisory group for the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa’s project on Agroecological Entrepreneurs & Territorial Markets, and as a strategic advisor to Biovision Foundation’s program on investing in agroecology, which includes an East Africa Agroecology Accelerator. We are in touch and seek to build deeper partnerships with investor networks such CREO Syndicate, Confluence Philanthropy, and Toniic.

Photo by Andrew Knechel on Unsplash