Growing our Future US

Conventional food and agriculture contributes to urgent ecological and social challenges like carbon emissions, biodiversity loss, and precarious livelihoods. Regenerative agriculture offers a solution, but as the movement grows, we need to work together to ensure that interventions that restore nature also support people, especially farmers. 

Our values-driven, systemic approach is key to what makes us different. Growing our Future inspires changemakers throughout the food and agriculture system to imagine a future in which both people and planet thrive. A platform for collaborative action, our work is guided by five principles: 

1. Shifting mindsets and narratives towards a more holistic understanding of regeneration.

2. Addressing power dynamics and advancing social equity.

3. Centering farming, ranching, and farmworker communities.

4. Fostering connectivity and building systemic capabilities of changemakers.

5. Piloting and scaling innovative action. 

Growing our Future has been shaped by four years of deep, intentional collaboration with our community. It draws on Forum's almost 30 years of experience in sustainability, systems change, futures, and innovation in design.  

“The VF Foundation is proud to support Growing our Future’s work, collaborating with a diverse set of stakeholders to help scale regenerative agriculture practices, with a specific focus working with BIPOC farmers and communities. We believe the project’s holistic approach – looking at policy, financing, and innovative pathways to market – will drive positive, systemic change for people and the planet.”

- Gloria Schoch, Director, Global Impact, VF Corporation and Executive Director, The VF Foundation

What we do

A brief history of the project 

2020 | Landscape analysis + collaborative system diagnosis: Growing our Future officially commenced with a systems diagnosis of agriculture in the US, identifying four critical issues with the potential to accelerate the uptake of regenerative agriculture. These leverage points became the foundation for the initiative’s four workstreams: pathways to market, financing the transition, shifting policy, and integrating social outcomes into regenerative programs. Scaling regenerative agriculture in the US looked at the US agriculture system from a systems lens and uncovers geographically specific barriers and enabling factors to scale regenerative agriculture in the US. 

2021 | Workstream launch: To advance the four workstreams, we convened diverse changemakers from across the system to develop a shared understanding of the collective action needed to shift the system. 

2022 | Collaborative resource development: We published a second report, making the case for urgent and deep transformation in the US’ agricultural system. It assessed the dynamic but piecemeal progress being made towards regenerative agriculture and examined how Growing our Future can support a deep and collaborative transition that centers social wellbeing and environmental resilience. 

Impact Spotlight: focus on cotton

In 2022 we began our pilot in regenerative cotton with the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), the first-ever application of a regenerative protocol to US cotton. We partnered with producers, enrolling 2,276 acres across four states to incorporate new regenerative practices, and removed over 191.552 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (mtCO2e) from the atmosphere.

2023 | Toolkit launch: The initial three-year strategic plan culminated in four toolkits, inspired by the workstreams, to share learnings, insights, and tangible resources for action. We also continued to prioritize shifting narratives on regenerative agriculture with the Frontline of Indigenous Agriculture Series. 

Impact Spotlight: toolkits to advance collective action 

Explore the toolkits for financing the transition, social outcomes, pathways to market, and policy. 

2024 and beyond | Application + implementation in context: Growing our Future narrowed its focus to tangible action within the financing the transition and policy workstreams through place-based applications. Ecosystem Services Market Programs in Action shared the learnings from the first phase of the cotton pilot, which concluded in early 2024. And a collaboration in Colorado helped shape legislation that incentivizes regenerative and local souring. In keeping with the initiative’s focus on shifting power in the system, we established an Advisory Council to help inform the strategic direction of the initiative. 

"Forum for the Future’s Growing Our Future initiative team’s approach to program management, insight development, and professionalism has greatly influenced the project approach that ESMC has taken toward our IRJ [inclusion and racial justice] and project management strategy. The team’s publishing of key takeaways & learnings from phase 1 of the cotton pilot - via the ‘Financing the Transition’ toolkit - and proactive approach in leveraging that work in the design of phase 2 has created a model that has inspired ESMC to invest in content and messaging of our own as a vehicle for amplifying and building community around our other project work.”

- Doug Adams, Manager, Member Engagement & Equity, Ecosystems Services Market Consortium (ESMC) 

Partnerships bringing Growing our Future insights to life