Giving Compass' Take:

• John Bloom explains that to change the food system, farmers are looking at regenerative agriculture. The practice would require impact investors to fund biodynamics research. 

• A range of financing tools would be necessary to make this work. Where can your philanthropy and/or impact investing fit into this picture?

• Read about the benefits of biodynamics for agricultural farmers.

Similar to organic farming, biodynamic agriculture eschews synthetic pesticides and herbicides, GMOs, and hormones and other pharmaceutical growth promoters for livestock. But biodynamic farming goes well beyond that.

It stands out for its system-level approach. Farmers strive to create a diversified, balanced farm ecosystem that generates health and fertility from within the farm as much as possible.

With its emphasis on approaching the farm as an integrated living organism and the farmer as a deeply knowledgeable orchestrator, biodynamics is a natural path to regenerative agriculture—a real corrective to the negative effects of our dominant food system. Realizing the potential of biodynamics, however, will require an investment strategy that is also regenerative.

I believe we can scale biodynamics faster through regenerative investments that follow the integrated capital approach: the coordinated use of diverse financing tools—including loans, loan guarantees, investments, and grants—along with network connections and advisory support. 

Values-aligned capital support is essential to giving those kinds of solutions a fair trial, and if supporters of food system change can provide enough of it, we have a chance to create a thriving model of regenerative agriculture that is economically sustainable on its own terms.

Read the full article on biodynamics by John Bloom at TriplePundit.