Financing for Agroecology

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Overview | Outcomes | Projects | People | Resources

Overview

"Transforming public and philanthropic finance will enable agroecology to achieve its unmet potential as a vital approach to confronting our global challenges."
-Making Money Move for Agroecology, CIDSE

There is a growing consensus that our food systems must undergo a profound transformation to address today’s multiple crises. Simply improving the efficiency of industrial agriculture is not enough. Agroecology offers a transformative paradigm that prioritizes social justice and sustainability, gaining increasing recognition on the global stage. As funders—both large and small—seek impactful ways to allocate resources, the question remains: how can finance support meaningful change?

The current financial architecture for agricultural development was not designed to support agroecology, nor the transitions necessary to make it viable. Research reveals that only a small fraction of funding is directed toward agroecology, while industrial agriculture continues to receive most of the private and public investment. Moreover, little attention has been given to reshaping financial mechanisms to better serve agroecological transitions. This begs the question; “Will the transformation be funded?”

Together with a range of partners and collaborators we are working to shift this landscape. Through research, public engagement, and policy advocacy, we aim to transform financial approaches, programs, and methodologies—ensuring that funding supports community-driven agroecology transitions from the ground up.

Outcomes

Bader, C. L., Moeller, N. I., Grard, B., Wezel, A., Féret, S., Andreotti, F., & Vandenbroucke, P. (2025). Philanthropic Funding for Agroecology in Europe–Opening the (black) box of sustainable food system actors. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 1-30.

Moeller, N.I., Geck, M., Anderson, C., Barahona, C., Broudic, C., Cluset, R., ... & Frison, E. (2023). Measuring agroecology: Introducing a methodological framework and a community of practice approach. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 11(1).

Anderson, C.R. and J. Bruil. 2021. Shifting Funding to Agroecology for People, Climate and Nature. Action Aid. University of Vermont. Cultivate Collective.  

Anderson, C.R., Delvaux, F., Ahmed, F., Dauby, V., Moeller, N. 2021. Making Money Move for Agroecology: Transforming Development Aid to Support Agroecology. Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience and CIDSE. 

Moeller, N.I. and F. Delvaux. (2020) Finance for Agroecology: More Than Just a Dream? Common Dreams.

Moeller, N.I. (2020) Analysis of Funding Flows to Agroecology: the case of European Union monetary flows to the United Nations’ Rome-based agencies and the case of the Green Climate Fund. CIDSE & CAWR.

Pimbert, M.P.; Moeller, N.I. (2018) Absent Agroecology Aid: On UK Agricultural Development Assistance Since 2010.Sustainability, 10, 505.

Projects

Featured Project: The Role of Multilateral Development Banks

Background

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The global Stop Financing Factory Farming (S3F) campaign is a diverse coalition of organizations from the US, Europe and the Global South led by a Steering Committee of six NGOs including the Bank Information Center, Friends of the Earth U.S., Global Forest Coalition, Sinergia Animal, International Accountability Project and World Animal Protection. S3F works to shift public development finance away from industrial animal agriculture toward more sustainable food production. Through research, communications, advocacy and engagement strategies, the S3F campaign pushes the IFC/World Bank and leading regional development banks (IDB Invest, Asia Development Bank, Africa Development Bank and Europe Investment Bank) to exclude industrial livestock from their investment portfolios.

The Stop Financing Factory Farming (S3F) Campaign seek is working with the Institute for Agroecology at the University of Vermont in a project interested in promoting agroecological alternatives to factory farming to be used in advising large multi-lateral development banks (MDBs) about ways to finance better agriculture projects.

Project Details

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The UVM research project will be divided into two consecutive phases. Each will employ the Agroecology Coalition tool (Moeller et al. 2023) and focus on the question of how MDBs can support the growth and strengthening of agroecology. The Agroecology Finance Assessment tool will be used to assess current donor funded projects for “agroecologicalness” (Agroecology finance assessment tool | Agroecology Coalition).

Phase 1 is currently underway, and it involves interviews with experts to better understand the potential relationship between MDBs and agroecology. This phase also includes surveying of MDB projects (public and private sector investments) in select regions with the goal of identifying a few examples that meet, or nearly meet, S3F’s criteria for agroecology and analyzing these using the agroecology assessment tool developed by the Agroecology Coalition. S3F plans to use the research, ideally published with UVM, in advocacy with MDBs, pointing to the projects as examples of what the banks should prioritize vis a vis their agriculture sector investments. To the extent the tool-based analysis reveals opportunities for improvement, S3F will highlight these for the banks as well.
Phase 2 will involve identifying and cataloging non-MDB-funded agricultural initiatives, cooperatives, systems, or schemes that meet the agroecology tool criteria and the investment priorities of banks. These priorities include boosting food security, promoting climate mitigation and adaptation, creating jobs, and benefiting local and regional economies, and analyzing these using the Agroecology Assessment Tool. This will be supplemented with interviews with experts that bridge the areas of agroecology and agricultural development financing. The purpose of Phase 2 is to broaden MDBs’ knowledge and awareness of innovative systems and initiatives and demonstrate that banks can shift their portfolios toward support for agroecology rather than continuing to pour taxpayer dollars into the expansion of factory farming in the global South.