The RegenCircle Newscast 1.15.2026

Protecting Bees 🐝 and regenerative aquaculture 🐟 are at the top of my list this week. This is your bi-weekly curation of everything you need to know happening in the world of regeneration.

January 15, 2026

Letter from the Editor 🖋️

52 Things I Loved In 52 Weeks

This week I reflected on 52 things I loved in 2025. It helped me to see all the incredible things my community is building despite being a dark moment for our country. May 2026 Bring Beauty and Peace to each of you.

This Week’s Human Interest Stories

Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) debuted a new short documentary, All of America, Am I, during the organization’s 95th annual state convention.

“All of America, Am I” Tells the Story of Consolidation Through Four Wisconsin Farms

Wisconsin Farmers Union’s new short documentary All of America, Am I traces how corporate consolidation and industrial markets shape the daily realities of four Wisconsin operations: a seed company, a dairy farm, an organic grain farm, and a tannery. Narrated by author Michael Perry, the film moves from high‑level market forces—like concentration in seed, meatpacking, and retail—to intimate interviews about price squeezes, limited market access, and the strain on families and rural communities.

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Political News

Photo credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Public Health Groups Challenge Trump Administration’s New Dietary Guidelines

Civil Eats covers how leading public health and nutrition organizations are pushing back on the Trump administration’s 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines, which tout “high‑quality protein, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains” and call for avoiding highly processed foods and refined carbs. Critics say the rhetoric is not matched by policy: the guidelines sidestep structural issues like marketing to kids, SNAP rules that still heavily subsidize sugary drinks and junk food, and lack of strong limits on added sugar and ultra‑processed products in federal feeding programs. They also argue the administration’s framing—casting prior equity‑focused efforts as “political correctness” and emphasizing personal responsibility—downplays social determinants of health and industry power in shaping the food environment

Photo By Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images

Trump Pulls U.S. From the UNFCCC and 65 Other Global Organizations

ESG Dive reports that President Trump has formally withdrawn the U.S. from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—the foundational global climate treaty—and from 65 other international organizations tied to climate, clean energy, sustainable development, gender equality, and more. The move, enacted via a January 7 executive order, follows his second exit from the Paris Agreement and is framed by the White House as rejecting groups “contrary to the interest of the United States.” Climate and diplomacy experts warn that leaving the UNFCCC and bodies like the International Renewable Energy Agency and International Union for Conservation of Nature will weaken global coordination, undermine U.S. credibility, and complicate efforts for American businesses and states trying to align with international climate goals.

Reports Worth Reading

Photo By Louis Hansel on Unsplash

Op‑Ed: Where Is the Beef Dollar Going?

This op‑ed dissects how the “live cattle segment” (cow‑calf and feeder operations) has seen its share of the consumer beef dollar erode over three decades of post‑NAFTA consolidation and globalization. Before NAFTA, ranchers typically captured the vast majority of the beef dollar; since then, they’ve only regained a majority share during two brief periods following severe droughts (2010–2013 and 2020 onward) that shrank the cow herd and temporarily tightened supply. The author argues that sustained packer and retailer concentration has diverted value away from producers in normal years, and that only extreme climate shocks temporarily restore bargaining power—evidence, they say, that the marketplace is “fundamentally broken” and needs structural reform.

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r/RegenerativeAg: Takeaways from Pesticide Action Network Webinar

One of my favorite RegenerativeAg Reddit threads recaps key points from a Pesticide Action Network webinar, highlighting how pesticide harms fall disproportionately on farmworkers, rural communities, and ecosystems, while regulatory systems remain slow and industry‑friendly. The community emphasizes the need to pair on‑farm regenerative practices with political organizing—pushing for stronger bans, better enforcement, and corporate accountability—and to avoid treating “regen” as purely a soil‑health or carbon project. And that meaningful pesticide reduction will require both bottom‑up practice change and top‑down policy shifts, not just private certifications or niche market premiums.

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Investment News

Photo By Getty Images

2025: Biodiversity Funds Move From Niche to Emerging Asset Class

AgriInvestor’s 2025 year‑in‑review notes that biodiversity‑focused funds stepped out of obscurity as more investors recognized nature loss as a material financial risk—and nature restoration as an investable opportunity. New vehicles targeting habitat restoration, regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, and nature‑positive supply chains came to market, often combining concessional and commercial capital to de‑risk early projects. 2025 marked a turning point where biodiversity is no longer just an ESG talking point—it’s beginning to shape mandates, due diligence, and deal flow.

Photo By Motley Fool

Food and Natural Capital Fundraising Hits $13.4 Billion in 2025

A fundraising analysis cited by AgriInvestor shows that food and natural capital funds collectively raised about $13.4 billion across 56 funds, even as broader private markets cooled. While overall capital volumes dipped from prior peaks, momentum remained strong for strategies focused on farmland, regenerative production, water, forestry, and ecosystem services—signaling durable LP interest in real‑asset, climate‑aligned exposure. The piece suggests that managers who can demonstrate tangible environmental outcomes alongside stable cash yields are best positioned to attract capital in a more selective fundraising environment.

TECH

Image provided by xFarm Technologies.

xFarm Technologies Expands Its Digital Farm OS

xFarm Technologies continues to scale its digital platform that acts as an “operating system” for farms, integrating field mapping, input tracking, irrigation, machinery data, compliance records, and decision support in one interface. The company is rolling out new modules for carbon projects, biodiversity metrics, and interoperability with equipment and third‑party tools, positioning itself as a backbone for both farm management and data needed for sustainability reporting and finance. With thousands of farms already onboarded across Europe xFarm wants to be the standard layer that connects agronomy, markets, and climate programs in a fragmented agtech landscape.

Agtech Trends 2025: Signals for 2026

An iGrowNews trends piece notes that despite tighter funding, agtech is maturing: fewer “solution in search of a problem” apps, more tools focused on measurable ROI in areas like input efficiency, labor productivity, and climate risk management. The data show investor interest concentrating around biologicals, automation/robotics, farm management OS platforms, and MRV (measurement, reporting, verification) for carbon and ecosystem services, while hype has cooled around undifferentiated marketplace and generic farm IoT plays.

CONSUMER PRODUCTS

Photo by Organic Insider

Top 5 Organic Food Trends for 2026

Organic Insider’s 2026 trends piece argues that ultra-processing—and the new Non‑UPF Verified seal—will define the next phase of “better-for-you” foods, with research showing shoppers now rank how processed a food is above organic, non‑GMO, regenerative, and sustainability claims, and nearly three-quarters say they’re actively trying to avoid UPFs. The piece highlights Edacious and others pushing nutrient-density testing to compare how production systems (regenerative organic, grass-fed, conventional) change food quality, even as the science remains less precise than pesticide testing. It spotlights CIVC’s collaborative supply-chain model—shared procurement, contaminant testing, and co‑packing for multiple brands—as a blueprint for scaling clean, domestic organic grains while rewarding farmers. Two more big shifts: retailer-driven pesticide testing moving from niche to mainstream via private-label programs, and California’s organic school food success (nearly $6 million in annual organic produce buys) emerging as a national playbook for bringing organic into public institutions at scale.

Photo By New Hope Network

U.S. Retailers Lag on Reducing Harmful Pesticides

A new Bee‑Friendly Retailer Scorecard from Friends of the Earth finds that while leaders like Whole Foods and Sprouts are strengthening pollinator health and pesticide reduction policies, most major U.S. grocery chains remain far behind. The scorecard grades 25 top retailers on efforts to phase out bee‑toxic pesticides and expand organic, noting that USDA Organic—banning more than 900 synthetic pesticides—remains the most trusted benchmark for reduced pesticide use.

Earth Sciences

Photo by Amanda Bratcher

Great Southeast Pollinator Census Has a Record 2025

The 2025 Great Southeast Pollinator Census saw record participation across states like Georgia and the Carolinas, engaging thousands of residents, schools, and gardeners in counting bees, butterflies, wasps, and other pollinators visiting their plants. Volunteers spent 15‑minute observation periods recording insect visitors, producing valuable citizen‑science data that helps researchers track pollinator abundance and diversity over time while building public awareness of pollinator decline. Educators report the census is turning kids and adults into “pollinator detectives,” motivating more people to plant native flowers, reduce pesticide use, and think of their yards as part of a broader habitat network.

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Photo Credits: Tampa Bay Watch (top left); South Carolina Aquarium (top right); North Carolina Oyster Trail (bottom left); Tagal Oceanic/Lisa Tagal (bottom right)

Small Programs Are Changing Minds About Farmed Seafood

A NOAA feature shows how small, community‑based programs—from classroom visits to dock tours and public tastings—are helping demystify farmed seafood and counter outdated perceptions that all aquaculture is dirty or unsafe. Educators, extension agents, and farmers explain feed improvements, water quality controls, and certification schemes, emphasizing that well‑managed farms can reduce pressure on wild fisheries and provide affordable, healthy protein. By meeting people where they are—in schools, libraries, farmers markets, and coastal festivals—these efforts are slowly building more nuanced public understanding of when and how farmed seafood fits into sustainable diets.

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World News

EU Agriculture in Flux: Protests, CAP Revisions, and Green Backlash

A turbulent year in the EU marked by farmer protests over costs, regulations, and cheap imports; ongoing debates over Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) “green architecture”; and political pushback against parts of the Green Deal. Member states are renegotiating eco‑schemes and environmental conditions amid pressure to maintain incomes and food production, while civil‑society groups warn that watering down climate and biodiversity ambitions will deepen long‑term risks for European farming.

Photo By Getty Images, Unsplash

EU Pushes Forward Mercosur Trade Deal, Despite Farm Sector Unease

Morning Ag Clips reports that the EU is moving to revive its long‑discussed free trade agreement with Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay), aiming to open markets for industrial goods while gradually reducing tariffs on sensitive agricultural products. European farm groups, especially in beef‑ and dairy‑heavy countries, fear a surge of cheaper South American products produced under weaker environmental and animal‑welfare standards, potentially undercutting EU farmers already facing strict climate and pesticide rules.

UPCOMING EVENTS & GRANTS

This is our last newsletter of the year! The biggest gift you could give us would be to share this edition with a like-minded friend. We will be back with our next edition in January. Happy Solstice!

This is a community-run platform. If you have an organization supporting the regenerative agriculture movement and would like to see your news shared on our platform, send an email to [email protected].

Inquisitive Media. Inspiring Emergence.