Scaling Regenerative Agriculture: From Vision to Action
30th June 2025
SAI Platform Annual Event 2025
SAI Platform’s 2025 Conference Day opened with energy, clarity, and purpose, bringing together global stakeholders to explore how regenerative agriculture can drive climate resilience, economic value, and systemic change across the food sector. From heartfelt farmer insights to cutting-edge industry and policy developments, the day delivered a powerful mix of vision and practicality.
Addressing agriculture’s most pressing challenges, Sarah Singla, farmer and soil health advocate, gave an inspirational opening keynote. As a farmer managing a 100-hectare no-till farm in Southern France, Singla emphasised a practical path to regenerative agriculture. One rooted in the critical role of soil health, respect for the land, and long-term thinking.
“If you provide the right price, farmers will change”
Sarah Singla, French Farmer and Agronomist.
Cover cropping is an investment not a cost – however, scaling this transformation demands more than precision drilling, it requires courage, collaboration, and systemic support. Economic incentives, policy alignment, and shared responsibility are essential across the value chain.
In a call to shift from cost-based to value-based competitiveness, Julien Denormandie, former French Minister of Agriculture, stated the need for food prices to reflect environmental and health impacts.
Denormandie warned against the “Mistigris” approach whereby value chain actors pass their environmental responsibilities onto the next urging instead collective accountability across the food system. Strategic subsidies and better support for young farmers, he argued, are key to future-proofing the EU’s farming model for the next generations.
The Industry Business Case
While consumer demand remains limited, panellists agreed that businesses must lead the transition to regenerative agriculture through strategic procurement, shared responsibility, and outcome-driven collaboration.
Sarah Lockwood from Danone and Géraldine Bernard from Heineken aligned on the importance of resilience, long-term partnerships, and systems that move beyond carbon tunnel vision. Focus would concentrate on key ingredients, internal alignment and trust across supply chains, rather than vertical integration.
Showcasing, financing innovations such as discounted loans and blended models, Lianne Van Leijsen, Rabobank stressed the need for shared frameworks and consistent data.
The Farmer’s Perspective
Shifting focus to the farmer’s business case for regenerative agriculture, panellists explained that beyond economics, farmers are motivated by autonomy, environmental stewardship and a deep connection to their land and community.
Farmers Jean Harent and Peter Fröhlich unanimously highlighted the emotional and financial risks of transition, and the value of peer support and shared learning.
Grazielle Parenti, Syngenta explained how technical advice, financial tools, and strong farmer-industry collaboration are essential to support adoption while Valentina Materia, Wageningen University stressed the need to listen to farmers’ goals—economic, environmental, personal—and to co-create realistic pathways that balance short-term costs with long-term benefits. Building trust, using shared data, and aligning values across the supply chain are key to enabling the transition.
Methodologies to Scale Regenerative Agriculture
Turning attention to methodologies that industry can draw on for how to scale regenerative agriculture, Lauren Lebelt from ClieNFarms and Prof. Gottlieb Basch from the European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) shared insights into working with demonstration and commercial farms to test practices and facilitate peer learning. They also introduced the notion of “creative arenas” to co-create tailored solutions.
A major milestone with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between SAI Platform and ECAF marked a commitment to strengthening collaboration and shared knowledge exchange.
In a first of its kind keynote, Valeria Forlin from the European Commission outlined upcoming EU frameworks for market-based incentives. Forlin detailed plans for a unified certification system, geospatial carbon registries, and alignment with the Common Agricultural Policy to support farmers in transition. She also previewed the forthcoming EU Green Claims Directive and a 2026 roadmap for carbon credit quantification – important steps towards regulatory clarity and investment.
Challenging Assumptions
Other highlights from the conference included a well-received debate on the provocative motion: Regenerative agriculture will never have sufficient demand to transform the food system.
Interactive breakout sessions gave delegates the unique opportunity to hear directly from Nestlé, McDonalds, Mondeléz and the Future Fit Dairy Initiative. Their grounded insights brought to life lessons learnt for successes and the challenges of scaling up regenerative agriculture in France and Northern Europe.
From Intention to Action
SAI Platform’s 2025 event made one thing clear: regenerative agriculture is no longer a peripheral concept; it is instead a growing science-based movement driven by collaboration and shared purpose. As speakers throughout the day reiterated, achieving transformation requires bold leadership, trusted partnerships, and systems that value outcomes over intentions.