February 2026
Walk into any farmers market on a Saturday morning and you’ll find a powerful vision of what people hope agriculture can be: diverse crops, healthy soil, connected communities, and farmers who know their land intimately. The small farms at those markets are also pioneers of modern regenerative agriculture – incorporating cover crops, rebuilding organic matter, and testing biodiversity strategies. This vision matters, but we must hold a harder truth alongside it: small farms alone cannot deliver the transformation our food system needs. Not because they aren’t capable or important, but because the structure of the modern food economy simply does not run on small nodes. Rather, it runs on scale.
The failings of sustainable agriculture today
Today in the United States, organic farmland accounts just 0.55%, up from 0.19% when the certification began in 2000 but down 11% since 2019. Regenerative farmland is even rarer, with little evidence yet to believe it will follow a different trajectory. These acres are meaningful but far too few to bring sustainably grown foods to most consumers or shift critical soil health or water outcomes.
Encouragingly, consumer demand is rising: in 2024, organic sales grew twice as fast as conventional food, and the US imported over $5B of organic food to fill some of that gap. If people want more sustainable and less toxic food, why aren’t more US farmers growing it? In our view, it’s because we lack the scaled, resilient supply chains that make sustainable (organic and/or regenerative) farming viable.
Why scale matters
At AC, we believe that to create a food system where all farms can farm regeneratively, we must build the systems that make regeneration economically viable. Those systems, involving distribution, cold storage, marketing, processing, quality assurance, and natural capital measurement, all require significant capital.
This is where midsize and large-scale family farms play a critical role. They already move most of the nation’s food and generate far more stable profits. While small farms make up 46% of US farmland, they only produce 17% of sales and 8% of profit. Meanwhile, midsize farms are 90% more likely to be profitable than small farms, and large farms are 185% more likely. In a system designed for efficiency, like the US food system, successfully transitioning larger operations with thousands of acres is critical to meeting market demand for reliable and consistent volume. It’s also critical to hold these operations accountable to regenerative outcomes through financial incentives and stringent measurement. If we want a regenerative food system, we need to enroll, educate, and invest in, rather than ignore or villainize, these larger scale players.
What scaled regenerative farming unlocks for everyone
A single large regenerative platform can unlock opportunities that dozens of smaller growers could never access alone:
- Market access: The top five retailers control nearly two-thirds of US grocery sales. Only large-scale platforms can open these channels through demonstrating reliability. Once that happens, smaller growers can follow.
- Example: Our Sumo Citrus program was built through scaled regenerative farms, but today, it supports nearly 70 additional smaller growers who take advantage of our processing, distribution, and brand, and in turn earn ~3x in profit what they could otherwise.
- Access to healthy foods: 92% of food purchasing happens in grocery stores. When regenerative platforms break into grocery channels, healthier, less toxic, food becomes accessible to all consumers, not just those with the time and money to shop at farmers markets.
- Example: By building enough volume in frozen organic blueberries, one major retailer dropped their conventional SKU, making organic the default choice.
- Local economic value: Scaled regenerative operations create stable jobs and justify new capital investment in trucks, cold storage, wash lines, and regional processing, which can benefit small farms that access this infrastructure.
- Mindset shifts: When large farms succeed with regenerative practices, neighbors, lenders, and buyers take notice. Regeneration becomes a proven, replicable model rather than a niche ideal.
- Deep environmental benefits: Converting more land to regenerative unlocks carbon sequestration, water infiltration, and increased biodiversity across the 99%+ of currently conventional acreage, which is crucial for the climate crisis.
To regenerate our landscapes, small farms are critical, but so are large farming operations. We believe in investing in scaled regenerative farms and processing infrastructure—investments often overlooked by traditional and catalytic capital—to build the supply chains and natural‑capital outcomes that bring regenerative agriculture into the mainstream. To be sure, there are risks, but the risks are greatly outweighed by the rewards.
References
- Delano, J. (2023, June). Industry consolidation leads to higher food prices. CBS News.
- Hoppe, R. (2015, July). Charts of Note: Profitability varies by farm size. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
- NASS USDA. (2000, February). Farm numbers and land in farms (Sp Sy 3). U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agriculture Statistics Service.
- NASS USDA. (2011, February). Farm numbers and land in farms, 2011 summary (ISSN 1930-7128). U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agriculture Statistics Service.
- Pfaff, S. (2025, April). Growth in U.S. organic marketplace accelerated in 2024. Organic Trade Association.
- Raszap Skorbiansky, S. (2025, February). Organic Situation Report, 2025 Edition (EIB‑281). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
- Raszap Skorbiansky, S. (2025, March). Charts of Note: Organic food import values have increased to $5.7 billion since 2011. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
- Raszap Skorbiansky, S., Carlson, A., & Spalding, A. (2023, November). Rising consumer demand reshapes landscape for U.S. organic farmers. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
- Zeballos, E. (2025, July). Retailing & Wholesaling – Retail Trends. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.