The mission of the Regenerative Agriculture and Food Systems Summit was “to accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture to build a more abundant and resilient food system for generations to come.” Agriculture and food supply chain stakeholders all came together for education and collaborative discussions about transitioning to regenerative practices and the challenges that we collectively face along the way.

PCM is uniquely qualified to participate in these discussions because we work so closely with midwest farmers as they adopt practice changes. We have aggregated data that shows the economic and environmental impact of regenerative agriculture practices, but perhaps more importantly we have annecdotal information from the individual farmers themselves and the challenges they face.

PCM Operantion Manager Clay Bess participated in the panel discussion alongside Laurie Isley, farmer and USB board member, and Jill Brokaw from National Pork Board. Bess shared farmer perspectives on topics such as return on investment, logistical challenges to practices changes, and other hurdles farmers can be met with.

“I shared the perspective of a farmer who isn’t totally set up to manage cover crops, or who isn’t netting enough profit to take the risk of making a system change. I explained that a majority of our enrolled farmers share that perspective, and that PCM is working in this space to provide farmers with confidence, knowledge, technical assistance and financial incentive opportunities.”

Clay Bess, PCM Operations Manager

The audience consisted largely of representatives from corporations who wanted to hear from farmers and get ideas for how they can impact change. Partnerships with businesses like these can be as much as a driving force to farmers as knowledge and data, as we’ve seen through our partnership with PepsiCo and the resulting financial incentive program. Events like this one are an excellent opportunity to share success stories and how projects have led to greater regenerative practice implementation – and PCM is working to ensure farmer voices are part of the discussion.

Photo credit: U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action