Amid a plethora of pledges by large multinational food suppliers to scale regenerative agriculture, Levy is bucking the trend by pledging financial support for local ecological initiatives. By Nick Hughes.
General Mills has become the latest multinational food supplier to announce an increase in adoption of regenerative agriculture within its supply chain. The owner of the Green Giant brand has partnered with agricultural cooperative Euralis to promote the adoption of agroecological practices among 250 sweetcorn producers in southwest France. It forms part of the company’s worldwide commitment to advance regenerative agriculture across 400,000 hectares by 2030.
With the likes of PepsiCo, McCain and Nestlé all targeting similarly substantial increases in global acreage being farmed under regenerative practices, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that regenerative agriculture has its roots in small-scale, people-led projects aimed at building more resilient local ecosystems and communities.
In that spirit, Levy, the specialist catering provider owned by Compass Group, has announced a new partnership with RegenFutureCo to launch a ‘Living System Fund’ that will support local ecological projects that give back to nature and create social impact.
RegenFutureCo managing director, Vincent Walsh, is known within food industry circles for establishing the Biohub at Ings Farm as a testbed for regenerative and circular farming practices on a traditional upland sheep farm in Yorkshire. Levy is among the sponsors of the Biobub along with Quorn and Yorkshire Water.
The caterer, which counts The O2, The NEC, Allianz Stadium (Twickenham) and The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon) among its customers, is donating £500,000 to the fund in 2026 to benefit six projects across the UK, chosen for their relevance to Levy’s supply chain and aligned with its desire to source from regenerative suppliers.
They include Allotment Soup, a community-led project on the Isle of Walney in Barrow In Furness, Cumbria, where 1.6 acres of former scrub land has been transformed by volunteers, artists and ecologists into a community growing and nature restoration space. The money will fund the establishment of a new community orchard.
Another beneficiary is the London Regenerative Farm Hub in Greenwich, where funding aims to transform one of Europe’s largest city farms (at 89-acres) into a showcase for agro-ecological farming in the city.
Elsewhere, the Fordhall Farm Community Land Initiative, a community-owned farm in Shropshire, will benefit from projects to support “river-friendly farming”, including restoration of the farm’s oldest spring-fed pond.
Other projects to benefit from funding involve the creation of connected habitats across the North York Moors, the development of a nursery for seagrass off the Welsh coast, and a project to improve the health of two rivers in the Scottish Highlands.
The fund has been designed as a collaborative endeavor and RegenFutureCo is now inviting additional contributions from other partners so the benefits can be amplified.
“We have developed the Living System Fund to address the root causes of environmental degradation, to nurture biodiversity and strengthen community resilience,” said Walsh. “It is more important than ever to invest in living systems, in both aquatic and terrestrial environments.”
Levy CEO Jon Davies added: “At Levy, we’ve already seen what’s possible when partnerships are rooted in purpose and backed with real commitment. Change only happens when we put our money where our mouth is, when we move beyond statements into genuine collaboration and meaningful investment. That is how we create lasting, positive impact for people and planet.”
In a further signal of growing interest in small-scale regenerative projects, Defra hosted a roundtable meeting in Birmingham last month looking at how industry support to grow healthier, more sustainable food can play a role in regenerating urban centres.
However, the department has to date said regenerative approaches will not attract public support, via new sustainable farming subsidies. A June UK parliamentary report noted Defra’s reasoning for this comes down to “a lack of evidence in the UK context that regenerative agriculture will support the provision of public goods”.
