Giving Compass' Take:

• Modern Farmer profiles Eric Kessler, founder of Arabella Advisors, and other venture philanthropists who are trying to improve our food ecosystem by unlocking more capital for good.

• How can the efforts mentioned here serve as inspiration for others looking to advance sustainability in agriculture and food production? Aligning passion with investment has a payoff.

• Here's how the food justice movement is looking to create equity.

Eric Kessler knows more than a few foodie billionaires who want to put their money where their mouth is. Specifically, they want to put it behind companies that are making the healthy, responsibly produced food they love to eat.

His company, Arabella Advisors, helps foundations and high-net-worth individuals align their dollars with their cause, whether it’s fighting climate change or empowering women in the workplace. But over the past few years, Kessler has shifted his focus to harnessing capital for the sake of transforming the food system. This is partially a passion project on his part — he cofounded the Chef Action Network with Michel Nischan and created the Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change at the James Beard Foundation. But Kessler also has clients who want to get in on the bottom floor on a crop of up-and-coming companies that they believe — or, at least, hope — will soon rule the food system.

“Right now, there is so much money going into companies that are working to produce healthy food in ways that are both sustainable and equitable — what I call the ‘good food system,’” says Kessler. “There are literally billions of dollars of capital just waiting to be put to work.”

Read the full article about the venture capitalists building the future of food by Brian Barth at Modern Farmer.