ABSTRACT
The regenerative capacity of food systems is profoundly shaped by the financial systems that serve them. The linkages between food and financial systems has prompted growing concern amongst scholars about the ways in which financial investment in the sector is associated with problematic outcomes, including food price volatility, weakened land rights, and corporate concentration. These concerns have led to scholarship on the financialization of food systems, which explores the ways that finance interacts with various activities along the food chain. More recently, social finance theorists and practitioners have broadened the analysis to question whether financial investment inevitably results in negative social and environmental outcomes in food systems. They offer potential solutions to the harmful effects of mainstream investment patterns by supporting alternative financing initiatives outside of the mainstream industrial food system. This chapter explores the theme of social finance and how, within the context of financialization in the agrifood sector, social finance could potentially support more regenerative food systems. The case of FarmWorks Investment Co-op, is presented as a case study of the regenerative capacity of social finance in the agrifood sector. The chapter concludes with some reflections regarding potential contradictions and prospects for more regenerative types of agrifood finance.
