Why Now?

For decades, American agriculture has been structured to incentivize and subsidize monocultures, scale, consolidation, and global supply chains. As a result, farmers who use climate-smart practices, prioritize diversity, and sell into local markets face a daunting challenge: they must compete with systems that produce cheap food by externalizing costs. 

These small to medium-sized farming businesses typically do everything; from crop planning and managing employees to harvesting crops and marketing and selling those crops to juggling legalities and government reporting, to name some of their responsibilities. 

There is a once-in-a-century transition happening in U.S. farming. As older farmers retire and other farms consolidate or close, a new generation of farmers is emerging. They see their role as central to mitigating climate change, feeding their communities nutrient-dense food, and establishing just and inclusive food systems for all.

However, farmers don’t typically receive time away from the farm to refine their business and focus on personal development. The FARMpreneurs Strategic Sprint enables and encourages farmers to develop a 3-5 year strategic plan, grow their entrepreneurial and leadership skills, and unlock their abilities to realize their goals while becoming food systems changemakers.

Climate Imperative

Scaling climate-smart agriculture is a critical climate solution that also creates more resilient and equitable food systems. Farmers are on the front lines of regional food security, community well-being, and planetary health. Increasing temperatures, volatile weather, droughts, and flooding have already made farming more challenging. 

Adoption of regenerative agriculture is a critical climate solution, but scaling has been slow in all major geographies. Recent market and policy tailwinds have created renewed interest in regenerative agriculture. Major companies that interact with agricultural value chains — from brands and retailers to traders — have made commitments to support adoption as part of their net-zero carbon and biodiversity goals. Governments across the world have created new incentives for growers to adopt practices, and some have begun rethinking subsidy regimes that typically incentivize conventional, intensive agriculture.

Why Invest in Farmers?

Climate-smart farmers who produce nutrient-dense foods provide services that are undervalued by our society. Farmers rarely have time to reflect and develop new business strategies that help them adapt to changing market conditions and opportunities to become more profitable and resilient. 

FARMpreneurs is a unique educational program that guides farmers through an intensive development strategy process that brings them perspective, focus, and feedback from experts and peers. Graduates of the program emerge as empowered farmers, ready to be in the driver's seat of their business, more investable and offering value propositions to investors, lenders and grantors.