From Pilots to Scale is Regen Ag Drumbeat at Sustainable Brands 2025

By Susan Hunt Stevens

Regenerative agriculture is now front and center in sustainability circles, this time at the Sustainable Brands 2025 conference in San Diego. A full-day Summit on the first day of the conference, facilitated by the fabulous Dr. Sally Uren of Forum for the Future, brought together leaders from ADM, Oatly, Grain Millers, Whole Foods Market, the Piedmont Agrarian Collaborative and others to discuss challenges and opportunities in scaling regen ag. The rest of the week featured dedicated sessions on the mainstage and breakouts.

The drumbeat of “from pilots to scale” pulsed loudly here too, with an emphasis on storytelling, trust-building, and transformative partnerships. The sessions didn’t just focus on the food system, but also the connection between farming and bio-based products, whether that’s bio-based plastics or ethanol. Pets were on the mainstage with Nestlé Purina sharing their regenerative ag efforts. The conversation was global, with Hershey sharing a partnership with CARE, PUR and the Rainforest Alliance to improve incomes, resilience and sustainability for 20,000 cocoa farmers in Cote D’Ivoire. 

The other emphasis was on consumer expectations, which, the research continues to demonstrate, are growing significantly – particularly in the food industry. Earlier this year, the National Science Foundation released findings that 67% of consumers consider sustainability factors important when making food decisions, but only 39% think the labeling adequately addresses sustainability. 

While the momentum was palpable, significant barriers exist, particularly as farmers struggle with a polycrisis of more frequent extreme weather, economic shifts like tariffs, geopolitical instability, and labor shortages. Here in the U.S., there are fears that more farms will fail than at any time since the 1980s. While there is growing evidence that regenerative agriculture is more profitable agriculture for farmers in the longer term, many speakers acknowledged that more systemic transition support is needed -- from financial incentive programs to risk management products to more widespread agronomic expertise.

One of the most profound “from the front line” statements came from a company with one of the largest regenerative agriculture programs in the world. “We’ve learned that every farm is different. A practice might work incredibly well in one area and then might not work in another. One practice might have a huge carbon reduction impact in one area and none in another. We need to support the transition, but we can’t dictate practices or make it one-size-fits-all.”

Whether the focus was coffee or corn, soil health, carbon or water resilience, the convenings generally reached similar conclusions. Partnerships that bring transition finance, risk management, agronomic expertise, and frictionless data measurement to the table are critical right now to move from pilot to scale.

Susan Hunt Stevens is a Strategic Advisor to CIBO Technologies and an award-winning 3X founder in climate-tech and sustainability. A recognized expert in behavior-change design, she has also held senior digital roles at New York Times Digital and Boston.com.