Roots of Change: Regeneration from Brazil to Bali
This week, we turn to coffee, a crop grown by millions and consumed by billions, yet long shaped by extractive practices and volatile markets. Our featured article, “Quality Through Sustainability: How Illy's Regenerative Practices Create Award-Winning Brazilian Coffee,” highlights illycaffè’s leadership in redefining Brazilian coffee through regenerative farming. From cover cropping and terracing to fair compensation and pre-competitive collaboration, illy’s approach blends innovation, ecosystem thinking, and long-term vision.
This week’s Essential Reads span from Indian cotton fields and Balinese rice paddies to global brands like L’Occitane that use regenerative techniques to restore soil, strengthen livelihoods, and reimagine supply chains.
In Research Corner, a study on Indigenous-led conservation finance shows how The Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond in Canada offers an alternative to extractive capital by replacing profit-maximizing incentives with relational, land-based governance rooted in Indigenous knowledge.
Let’s dig into this week’s stories of how regeneration is reshaping not only farming systems, but our relationships with land, value, and each other.
Featured Article:
In this Forbes article, I explore how illycaffè is elevating Brazilian coffee and redefining the industry's sustainability narrative through regenerative agriculture. Once viewed as a quantity-first origin, Brazilian farms are now winning illy’s top quality awards, thanks to soil-first, ecosystem-based farming methods adopted through illy’s regenerative model.
Certified by regenagri, illy’s program employs terracing, cover cropping, biodiversity-focused intercropping, and organic soil amendments specifically adapted to long-living coffee trees. Guided by its “Virtuous Agriculture,” illy now sources regeneratively grown Arabica from Brazil and is co-developing new standards for the sector.
By connecting regenerative farming with quality, fair compensation, and climate resilience, illycaffè is transforming one of agriculture’s most extractive crops into a blueprint for ecological and economic renewal.
Essential Reads:
High-Tech Cotton
In India’s Sirsa district, cotton farming is undergoing a revival through high-tech regenerative agriculture. By combining drip fertigation, integrated pest management, and canopy control, farmers are seeing yields double while cutting water use by 60% and fertilizer inputs by 40%. With support from the South Asia Biotechnology Centre and the Central Institute for Cotton Research, the practices restore soil health, reduce pesticide dependence, and rekindle farmer optimism in North India’s ailing cotton belt.
Read more: Cotton Farmers Of Sirsa Go High-Tech, Lead The Way In Regenerative Agriculture
Farm to Face
L’OCCITANE Group is integrating regenerative agriculture into its global supply chain from lavender farms in Provence to shea cooperatives in West Africa. By adopting cover cropping, agroforestry, and localized biodiversity restoration, the company is improving soil health, supporting climate resilience, and helping women’s entrepreneurship. Through the One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B) coalition, it is also driving industry-wide alignment on metrics and agroecological transition.
Rice Wisdom in Bali
In Bali, Astungkara Way is reimagining rice farming through Complex Rice Systems (CRS), a regenerative model that integrates ducks, fish, azolla, and companion crops to build soil fertility, control pests, and diversify farmer income. Rooted in traditional Balinese wisdom and backed by agroecological science, CRS is delivering comparable yields to conventional methods while cutting chemical inputs and restoring ecosystem health. With hands-on training, youth engagement, and open-source tools, the initiative is laying the groundwork for a more regenerative future of rice cultivation.
Read more: A Balinese Initiative Reimagines Rice Farming
Biochar and Beverages
From sweet potato farms in Japan to tea plantations and global supply chains, Suntory Holdings is deploying regenerative agriculture to build climate resilience. In partnership with Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, the beverage giant is trialing biochar and cover crops to combat crop disease, reduce chemical inputs, and cut emissions by over 30%. Paired with a circular strategy that turns manufacturing waste into soil-enhancing biochar, Suntory’s approach blends agritech innovation with sustainable sourcing and soil health.
Read more: Lucozade Owner Champions Biochar in Regenerative Agriculture Collaborations
Regenerative Ranch
In McCulloch County, Texas, a multigenerational ranch is adopting regenerative methods with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Through managed grazing, mobile chicken coops, and worm tea applications, they’re improving pasture vitality, supporting natural nutrient cycles, and diversifying production. With support from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, they’ve installed key infrastructure and developed a conservation plan that blends livestock care with long-term land stewardship, offering a practical model for sustainable ranching in the region.
Read more: Fridays on the Farm: Establishing Regenerative Agriculture on the Ranch
Resilient Farming
In India, Pernod Ricard is working with farmers to boost yields and lower costs through regenerative practices embedded in its corporate social responsibility strategy. Partnering with NGOs, the company offers targeted training and links growers to resource centers for seeds, equipment, and climate-resilient inputs. By reducing reliance on chemical fertilizers and improving water efficiency, such as through 2,355 recharge structures built since 2019, this regionally tailored model strengthens both farm livelihoods and supply chain resilience.
Bananas Beyond Organic
In partnership with WWF and Earth University, One Banana has launched a regenerative agriculture pilot to adapt and scale soil-restoring practices across its tropical farms in Guatemala, Peru, and Ecuador. By incorporating organic matter and natural soil amendments on over 3,500 hectares, the initiative is reducing synthetic inputs while improving soil structure and biological activity. Grounded in science and field-based learning, this collaboration aims to validate region-specific techniques that enhance resilience, biodiversity, and sustainability across the tropical fruit supply chain.
Read more: One Banana launches regenerative agriculture pilot
Research Corner:
This Journal of Management Studies article shows how shifting from extractive to regenerative capital can support biodiversity by centering Indigenous worldviews. Drawing on a four-year participatory study in Canada, the authors examine the Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond (CIB), a collaboration between Indigenous communities, conservationists, investors, and academics. Unlike conventional conservation finance, the bond mobilizes capital for land regeneration and blends Western and Indigenous ways of knowing. The result is a relational, kinship-based approach to land valuation that resists commodification and centers Indigenous resurgence. The study challenges the capitalist logic of conservation and opens new possibilities for regenerative capital rooted in ethical space and mutual care.
The regenerative business practices and sustainability innovations highlighted in this week's Regenerative Insights directly tackle the critical issues of corporate responsibility explored in my recent book explored in my recent book, The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profit and Socializes Cost.
Quick Takeaways:
Tradition meets science: Balinese rice systems merge ecology with cultural wisdom.
Carbon in the ground: Biochar and cover crops reduce emissions and restore land.
Pasture in balance: Rotational grazing and natural inputs revive rangelands.
Farms in sync: Circular dairy systems turn waste into fertile ground.
Land as kin: Indigenous-led finance redefines value through stewardship.