Klaus Mager

Key Insight: Incentivizing Regenerative Agriculture

Klaus focused on transitioning from climate warnings to actionable solutions through economic incentives for farmers.

Main Context

Frustration: Received yet another "last urgent warning" from Union of Concerned Scientists (via Oregon State or Portland State)

Problem:

These warnings have been coming for 3-4 years
People either already know or dismiss them
"What is really missing here is a transition to what can you actually do about this"

Food with Thought Initiative

Partnership: Working with Schumacher Institute in the UK

Two Work Streams:

Getting Food Hubs into Wholesale Markets
- Target: Small-to-medium farmers ("agriculture of the middle")
- These farmers currently can't access markets
- CSAs + farmers markets = only ~3% of total food sales
- Goal: Help farmers bundle/aggregate to participate in wholesale markets
Paying Farmers for Environmental Services
- Creating a secondary revenue stream
- Farmers grow TWO crops:
  - Food crop (primary revenue)
  - Environmental benefit crop (new revenue stream)

The Core Concept

Why Agriculture?

"Probably the most damaging part of our interaction with the natural world"
Destroys watersheds, soils, biodiversity
BUT: "Has the capacity to turn that... to recover and heal, and to regenerate"

The Problem with Big Ag:

Monsanto, Nestle, etc. working on automation
"Smart technology" and "climate-smart technology"
Hugely capital-intensive
Excludes more farmers who can't afford investment

The Alternative:

"You can absolutely shift into regenerative practices at scale"
IF farmers are incentivized and paid for it

How It Works

Measurement & Incentives:

Track what farmers promise to do
Monitor outputs
Create contracts for environmental services

Example: Mississippi Delta:

Groups of farmers paid to reduce nitrogen runoff into Mississippi River
Easy to measure
Incentives sufficient to motivate conservative farmers
"There's just so much money at stake that they are going to do it"

Cascade Effect:

To reduce nitrogen runoff, farmers must find other fertilization methods
Leads to improved soil health
Which requires cover crops
Possibly no-till farming
Crop rotation
Possibly perennials
"All these other things fall into place"

Single-Point Measurements:

One measurement (like nitrogen runoff) can shift the entire system
Creates positive feedback loops

Equipment Challenge

Problem: A farmer wanting to use cover crops needs different equipment - which is expensive.

Question: "How is a small to medium-sized farmer going to shift into environmental farming without having the support structure for it?"

Systemic View

Scale: "In every industry, there are ways where we could insert ourselves and provide the incentives at scale"

Target: "Mostly NGOs, non-profit, small and medium-sized farms"

Resistance: "How stubbornly resistant the market is to engage in change"

Chat Contributions

Shared resources on Gates Foundation agriculture strategy:

https://usrtk.org/bill-gates/critiques-of-gates-foundation/
https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/Documents/agricultural-development-strategy-overview.pdf

Discussed project with Schumacher Institute focused on wholesale markets and ecosystem services.

Related Concepts

Related Chat Discussions

David Witzel shared Nature article on "dynamics of the economy in regenerative ag": https://www.nature.com/articles/s44264-025-00100-1
Discussion of Gates Foundation agricultural strategy

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