Regenerative Agriculture Alliance

For years, RAA founding board president Reginaldo Haslett Marroquin has watched regenerative agriculture practitioners experiment with techniques that were widely used on his Native landscape, the highlands of Western Guatemala. Regi recognized that while not called regenerative agriculture, indigenous cultures across the world had developed techniques that advance regenerative agriculture goals such as building soil, protecting water, and creating equitable local food economies. On his farm in Northfield, Minnesota, Regi has spent years refining an intensive “tree range” production system that incorporates poultry and perennial crops in production units of no more than three acres.

Through RAA, Regi has now teamed up with regenerative practitioners and advocates around the world to honor and build on this indigenous knowledge. As stated on the RAA website, “the foundational understanding of regenerative agriculture is simply a way of thinking that belongs to the ancient traditions and way of living preserved by the indigenous peoples of the world. It is also this way of thinking that will save the planet from the current extraction-driven mentality of profit-driven food and agriculture operations that pursue their goals at any cost, including the health of consumers and the ecology on which all life depends.”

The Grant

The Regenerative Agriculture Foundation has partnered with RAA ever since the organization’s formation in 2018. RAA creates unique partnerships throughout the supply chain and recognizes the need to return value to all the actors along the supply chain. RAA has also developed effective partnerships with tribal organizations, new immigrant communities, and others that are often disenfranchised by the current food and farming system. We are proud to have been one of the first major donors to RAA.