#114 - Grupo, Wool, MSU

This Week in Regenerative Agriculture
Wednesday, June 12th

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Grupo Bimbo, the Mexico City-based baking giant grew their regenerative program from 716,600 acres at the end of 2024 to over 1.24 million acres by close of 2025 — with new programs launching in Brazil, the UK, and across North America covering key crops like wheat, corn, and sugar. The expansion is driven in part by a stark warning embedded in the company’s own sustainability reporting: over half of the world’s agricultural soils are already degraded, with projections suggesting that figure could climb as high as 90% by 2050 without significant intervention.

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Global Merino wool producer NATIVA has partnered with Oregon-based Shaniko Wool Company — which oversees nine farms across four states and was the first U.S. wool producer to earn Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) certification — to launch the first regenerative wool program on American soil, issuing the country’s inaugural dual NATIVA-RWS sustainability certification in the process. The NATIVA Regenerative Agriculture Program (NATIVA Regen) is built around a triple-impact framework targeting soil and water quality, animal welfare, and farmer livelihoods, with all claims verified through blockchain technology to ensure supply chain transparency from pasture to finished garment.

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Michigan’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) has partnered with Log Cabin Livestock in Chatham to pilot regenerative agriculture techniques, using grant funding to educate farmers on soil health practices that replace chemical fertilizers with strategic grazing management. The Bartlett family, who manage roughly 80 cattle and 150 sheep — even tracking herd feeding behavior via GPS collars — are learning that healthy soil hinges on a balance of chemical, physical, and biological properties that directly affect nutrient availability, water retention, and carbon storage.

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The Montana Farmers Union’s Regenerative Farming Collaborative is bringing the abstract principles of regenerative agriculture to life with a hands-on public field day in Columbia Falls, walking attendees through a full soil-to-compost-and-back cycle across stops that include organic grazing operations, a collaborative meat processing plant, and a composting service. Membership ambassador Montana Caise frames the event as a direct rebuttal to negative perceptions of farming, arguing that today’s predominantly linear production systems are fundamentally misaligned with sustainable resource management — and that many Montana producers have already pivoted to regenerative methods out of sheer necessity, driven by drought, hail, blizzards, and mounting economic pressure.

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Groundswell, the third film in a Golden Globe-winning trilogy, premiered at the 2026 Cannes International Film Festival and streams globally on Amazon Prime, bringing mainstream attention to regenerative agriculture through the story of Colombian smallholder Ruben Agudelo — a Nespresso partner for 20 years whose farm has seen measurable biodiversity recovery, including the return of bird species lost to conventional farming. The film arrives as Nespresso announced it has become the first company to sign the One Billion Acres pledge, underscoring the commercial stakes: today, 85% of coffee sourced through the Nespresso Sustainable Quality Program comes from farms verified as practicing regenerative agriculture.

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Venture of the Week

Groundbreaking Organizations.

InPlanet spreads finely crushed silicate rock powder onto tropical farmland, accelerating a natural geological process that pulls CO₂ out of the atmosphere while simultaneously rebuilding soil health. It’s a rare “two-for-one” in regenerative ag: the process captures atmospheric CO₂ while improving soil health and supporting long-term ecosystem resilience

https://inplanet.earth/

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This Week In Regenerative Agriculture is published by Why Regenerative. It is compiled by Jackson Baris with ChatGPT. Sign up for our newsletter here.