Flying Blind: Are We Crashing Regenerative Agriculture into the Mountain?

We spend a lot of time listening. To farmers, growers, innovators, and investors. Recently, one conversation stopped us cold.

A contact deeply involved in regenerative agriculture told us they wanted to get off what they described as the “regenerative bandwagon”. Their reason was stark: it felt like being in a plane, flying at speed, straight into the side of a mountain.

That image matters, because the concern wasn’t about regenerative agriculture itself. The principles are sound. Healthier soils, better biodiversity, greater resilience and long-term thinking in food systems. These things are vital. The worry was about what has grown up around the idea.

In a very short space of time, a huge amount of capital has flowed into regenerative agriculture. Alongside it, an industry has emerged that appears more focused on fundraising than farming. Slick presentations, bold claims, big promises and too often, commercially naïve money chasing the next must-have opportunity.

What we’re seeing in some cases is a spray-and-pray approach to investment. Money spread thinly across multiple geographies, systems and ideas, without the patience to focus on one area, master it, and build slowly from a solid base. Regenerative agriculture is not software. It cannot be scaled at venture speed without consequences.

For many, this feels uncomfortably familiar. We’ve seen this pattern before in vertical farming. Build excitement. Attract capital. Create something shiny. The economics don’t stack up. Projects fail. Yet the system still produces winners….but perhaps just not necessarily the people growing food or stewarding the land.

That’s the fear now. Not that regenerative agriculture will fail, but that it will be exploited. Used as the next hot theme by bad actors whose real expertise is raising money, not building resilient agricultural systems. Raise the funds. Miss the mark. Move on….while farmers, communities and the wider sector are left carrying the cost and the scepticism.

When things go wrong, the land doesn’t bounce back quickly. Trust doesn’t either. And each failure makes it harder for those doing the work properly to be heard or supported.

Real progress in agriculture has always been slower, more local and more disciplined. It comes from deep understanding, patience and iteration. Focusing on one place, one system, one problem, and getting it right before expanding. That’s not always an easy story to sell, but it’s how lasting success is built.

So the question we should all be asking is this: are we genuinely building the future of regenerative agriculture, or are we burning through it? Because if we get this wrong, the real loss won’t just be capital. It will be credibility. And regenerative agriculture is far too important to become another casualty of hype, quick returns and short memories.

We believe it deserves better.

Beanstalk Global

Let's grow together

Flying Blind: Are We Crashing Regenerative Agriculture into the Mountain?