GROWING MORE THAN FOOD & FIBER
Natural Asset Companies (NACs) based on working areas focus on converting agricultural production practices from methods that degrade ecosystems, to regenerative methods that restore them. Regenerative agriculture is farming and ranching in a manner that builds soil health, increases biodiversity, and creates healthier food products and a resilient food supply chain while restoring farm net profitability.
Agriculture is a focus for IEG as it sits at the intersection of critical environmental and social issues — water, energy, climate, human health, the economy, and biodiversity. NACs can provide the funding and business structure needed to fuel a scalable shift in agricultural practices from solely extractive to regenerative.
Farmers are currently compensated for producing commodity crops but not for producing clean air, water, healthy food, soil, a stable climate, or wildlife habitat (collectively, natural assets and ecosystem services). Yet producing these essential goods and services and managing resources wisely is valuable to many economic actors and to a more prosperous agricultural sector in the future.
By creating natural asset value that runs with the land, IEG is creating a means for farmers and ranchers to be compensated for production of both commodity crops and ecosystem services. Natural assets can be likened to others that exist on the land such as minerals, water, development rights, and other use rights.
THE POTENTIAL OF INTEGRATING NATURAL CAPITAL INTO FARMING THROUGH REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
There is another path. A growing body of evidence from around the globe demonstrates real, profitable solutions for the challenges faced in the agricultural sector through the adoption of regenerative practices. These methods build soil and biological systems, such as perennial crops, adaptive managed grazing, and cover cropping. This, combined with an incentive to reward natural capital formation, can ensure both the economic viability and the long-term sustainability of the sector.
Regenerative techniques can produce tremendous environmental, social, and economic benefits, such as:
Restoring soil health and soil life
Increasing farm profitability
Reducing risk and increasing resilience to floods and drought
Providing a home for wildlife and increasing biodiversity
Reducing demand for scarce freshwater resources
Replacing synthetic inputs (e.g., fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides) with biologically resilient fertility and pest and disease control
Increasing the nutrition and safety of foods, which helps to reduce healthcare costs
Increasing the amount of carbon stored and sequestered in agricultural soils and reducing methane emissions through targeted land management
NACs can support the adoption of regenerative farming by leveraging technologies, know-how, and capital in a business structure that can reward the ecosystem services that farmlands can provide.
