Brandon Welch: Revolutionizing regenerative agriculture financing
This week, the TTI Interview Series covers our member, Brandon Welch. Brandon Welch is on a mission to create a regenerative revolution in agriculture. He co-founded Mad Capital to help farmers transition their land to regenerative organic agriculture and is now working on over 95,000 acres of land in 16 states. In 2016, he biked from coast to coast across the USA and hiked the 272-mile Long Trail through VT. Outside of the Madness, you can find him hiking in the backcountry, getting into macro-economic debates, riding his bike, cheffing it up over the grill, or reading a book.
Brandon, tell us a little about your work and how it intersects with the impact space.
Mad Capital is on a mission to create a regenerative revolution in agriculture. We provide tailor-fit private credit to mid-sized regenerative organic farmers in the US. They are working to bridge the transition financing gap by providing the longer-term capital it takes to transition a degraded farm to a beautiful, profitable, and regenerative farm. Mad is actively working with over 95,657 acres of US farmland in 16 states, of which 13,218 acres are transitioning to organic from their two funds and strategic separately managed accounts totalling $37mm AUM. After many years of research, spanning the scientific to philosophical, it’s clear that agriculture is the highest leverage means of creating a positive impact on people and the planet. Agriculture sits at the base of our physicological human needs and is the most intimate way humanity interacts with our planet. Regenerative agriculture has the potential to sequester carbon, enhance biodiversity, fix our broken water cycle, and heal a slew of human diseases caused by chemical-rich, low-nutrient food.
Our entire focus at Mad Capital is making a positive impact on our landscapes and food system by helping farmers regenerate land at scale to bring ecological abundance back to our planet.
What is your own definition of impact?
Impact is about creating more than you consume. It’s about leaving the world better than you found it.
What do you believe is one of the most important issues that need to be solved over the next 10 years?
Roughly 50% of our land area is used for food production. Around ⅓ of all greenhouse gases originate from the current food system. In the US, our average life expectancy is decreasing, and over 39% of our population is obese. 33% of all land is moderately to highly degraded. These are only a handful of the issues the current industrial food system creates.
We all eat, and for humanity to thrive for the next 10,000 years, we must solve this problem. The good news is that our food choices directly influence how our world is being used. Through major cultural shifts and dedicated education efforts, we can reverse this damage within the next decade by shifting the tide in the other direction.
What do you believe is one of the most important issues that need to be solved over the next 10 years?
Roughly 50% of our land area is used for food production. Around ⅓ of all greenhouse gases originate from the current food system. In the US, our average life expectancy is decreasing, and over 39% of our population is obese. 33% of all land is moderately to highly degraded. These are only a handful of the issues the current industrial food system creates.
We all eat, and for humanity to thrive for the next 10,000 years, we must solve this problem. The good news is that our food choices directly influence how our world is being used. Through major cultural shifts and dedicated education efforts, we can reverse this damage within the next decade by shifting the tide in the other direction.
Tell us more about the long-term vision you have for your work and how you measure & quantify your impact.
Our mission is to catalyze a revolution in regenerative agriculture that ushers in a new dawn for the global food system. Our work is focused on agriculture because how we grow food defines our relationship to Earth. Our work is focused on helping stewards transition and thrive in regenerative agriculture. They are the nexus point between planetary and human well-being.
Our goal is to create the tipping point for that revolution. Trying to change a system is daunting. Good news. We only need a few to change today in order to change tomorrow. The Diffusion of Innovation is a theory that helps explain how, why, and at what rate something new spreads, where the adoption of a new idea, behaviour, or product (i.e., "innovation") does not happen simultaneously in a social system; rather, it is a process whereby some people are more apt to adopt the innovation than others. How do we quantify this? We believe that financing 5,000,000 acres of farmland by 2032 will usher in a sea change. We regularly track all of our individual farmers' acreage data within our portfolio to track our progress toward this goal (we are 2% of the way there!).
What are some of the misconceptions you’ve noticed regarding what impact is all about?
Impact is about progress, not harping on the past. For example, some still demonize the fossil fuel industry, but without fossil fuels, we would essentially still be in the medieval ages. iPhones, air conditioning, planes, computers, steel production, plastic, and so much more wouldn’t have been possible without them. Energy abundance brought humanity into a new echelon, physically and culturally, allowing us the time and resources to build a truly sustainable economy. It’s all relative to time and place.
Now, that we’ve learned of the challenges burning fossil fuels has brought (climate change), we can adapt. Humanity will continue to progress and as we develop new technologies, we can revert the mistakes of the past while making a positive impact on humanity.
Some think ‘impact’ is philanthropy or that it’s only done by ‘do-gooders’. It’s not. The reality is that all philanthropy and government are dependent on the profits of viable businesses. If that financial capital can be generated in a way that also improves livelihoods, the climate, food systems, water, energy, etc., then it’s net beneficial for humanity. It is not only possible, but all capital allocators should be an impact capitalist.
Impact doesn’t have to be out of reach with lofting ambitions to change the world. Impact can be as simple as leaving humanity and the planet better than we found it.
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