#117 - CANZA, CHICO, WHITE HOUSE

This Week in Regenerative Agriculture - Wednesday, July 9th

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The Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-Food (CANZA) has launched the One Million Acre Challenge, offering farmers declining cost-share payments—$31 per acre in year one, dropping to $25 and then $12.50—plus agronomic support to offset the income risk of transitioning to practices like no-till planting and reduced pesticide use, which typically cause a temporary yield dip. Program manager Emily Robinson said the initiative pairs financial help with crop-advisor guidance and data collection so farmers can eventually “measure and monetize the environmental benefits” they generate, while linking them to corporate partners such as Loblaw, Maple Leaf Foods, Nutrien, and McCain Foods.

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The California Natural Resources Agency kicked off its 2026 Farmland Summit series at Chico State on July 1, bringing together farmers, ranchers, researchers, and policymakers to advance regenerative agriculture as part of the state’s broader climate strategy, with seven more region-specific summits planned across deserts, wetlands, forests, and rangelands.

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Before signing an executive order promoting regenerative agriculture last week, President Trump convened an Oval Office meeting that turned into a candid policy debate, with American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall voicing concerns over parts of the order even as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, and practicing regenerative farmers made their case. The order directs federal agencies to expand research and support for practices like cover crops, reduced tillage, and livestock integration, and the White House invited hands-on advocates—Georgia rancher Will Harris, Indiana grain farmer Rick Clark, and South Dakota’s Jonathan Lundgren—to speak directly to how these methods have reshaped their operations. The stakes are considerable: USDA data show America’s farmers manage roughly 880 million acres and that agriculture contributes about $1.5 trillion, or 5%, of U.S. GDP while supporting more than 22 million jobs, underscoring why even a signing ceremony became a venue for real policy friction within Trump’s own coalition.

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Lloyds Banking Group and regenerative agriculture company Wildfarmed have launched the Food & Nature Resilience Fund to help UK farmers adopt practices that improve soil health, biodiversity, and water quality without pulling land out of food production, directly addressing the finding that 92% of farmers cite financial constraints as the primary obstacle to transitioning to regenerative methods. The fund is backed by water companies Severn Trent and Affinity Water alongside insurer AXA XL.

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The Duchy of Cornwall has partnered with Regenified, giving its tenant farmers access to the organization’s 6-3-4 verification standard to guide and validate the shift toward regenerative practices, with a target of full estate-wide adoption by 2035. Announced at Groundswell, the initiative pairs this framework with a new regenerative Farm Business Tenancy model—piloted at Monkhall Farm in Herefordshire—that locks regenerative commitments into long-term leases, backed by funding, grants, and peer-to-peer training rolling out this autumn. Rural Director Matthew Morris framed the push as essential to farm survival, noting, “we’ve got to farm in a way that provides resilience for our farmers,” pointing to recent extreme weather as evidence of the stakes.

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Venture of the Week

Groundbreaking Organizations.

UBEES treats pollination as a manageable agronomic input rather than an ambient ecosystem service. The company deploys connected hives instrumented with sensors that track colony health, activity, and local environmental conditions, then layers agronomic data and in-field beekeeping expertise on top to design pollination programs tuned to specific crops and geographies.

https://ubees.com/

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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.