Dialogue 1: Regenerative Ag in CA - Potential, Challenges, & Opportunities

You are invited to The Regenerative Ag and Water Lab* (aka ‘The RAW Lab’) virtual dialogue series - a series of four in-depth and far-reaching sessions - focused on exploring the potential, the challenges and pathways forward to more regenerative approaches on farms and throughout supply chains.

Why: Despite early efforts and encouraging developments, growers can’t transition alone, especially in California where the costs and stakes are high and water resources are constrained. At the same time, opportunities for pricing premiums are very limited due market pressures. We must find new and better ways to collectively address challenges and market barriers and find opportunities. No one organization or part of the supply chain can do it alone, and we all face considerable risks of delayed or ineffective change.

What and Who: These virtual sessions are an opportunity in a pre-competitive and collaborative space to share what different actors in the supply chain - from growers and advisors/capacity builders, to ag agencies, buyers and food companies - are doing and thinking about, including sharing what’s working and what’s not, and to learn and identify solutions together that make agricultural, ecological and business sense for both perennial and annual crop contexts.

How: We will address the topics through four (4) virtual facilitated sessions that will occur approximately every six weeks and be 1.5 to 2 hours long. While there will be some short presentations to help frame and jumpstart the dialogues, we expect them to be very interactive, thoughtful, honest and solutions-oriented.

Note on Confidentiality and Anti-trust: we will use Chatham House Rules which require all comments during the events remain confidential unless attributions receive explicit approval from the speaker/source.

of comment about the care to be taken regarding anti-trust, given the sensitive nature of some of these discussions. I could envision some of the participants having that concern, particularly if the commercial teams are being involved via procurement or other functions.

Future sessions will focus on deeper dives into addressing supply chain and marketplace barriers (including food safety), what's working in terms of transferable solutions and leverage points, and collaborative high potential pathways to accelerate regenerative ag in CA. Potential options also include addressing market demand and health/nutrient density.

Including colleagues: Please let us know if you and/or your colleagues are interested in participating and we’ll send a registration. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to let us know.

*Regenerative Ag and Water Lab (RAW Lab) is an initiative of CWAC and led by General Mills, American Farmland Trust, Sustainable Conservation and Ag Innovations. Partners include Blue Diamond Growers, OFI,  Google, KIND, Bowles Farming and other growers, and others to be announced soon. 

Avoiding Anti-trust Issues. During the dialogue(s) while we may discuss agricultural, market and purchasing barriers with regenerative ag in general terms, we shall request participants not discuss or share any of the following with any actual competitors:

• Pricing: Current or future prices, price changes, discounts, rebates, credit terms, or costs.
• Markets: Allocating territories, customers, or markets.
• Production: Limiting the production of products or services.
• Business plans: Non-public plans for marketing, product launches, expansions, or new technologies.
• Competitively sensitive information: Private data on market shares, sales, inventories, or profits.
• Refusals to deal: Agreeing to boycott or refuse to deal with certain suppliers or customers.