Food is Valuable 2025

Re:food’s impact report exploring our portfolio's sustainability metrics and the food system trends defining where value is created across the agrifood system.

July 2026
98 pages

Executive summary

Food is already valuable, and must remain so for society to prosper. But today's cheap food paradigm has been built by borrowing value from soil, ecosystems, and public health, and that debt is coming due. As regulation, consumer behavior, and capital markets begin to reprice what they once ignored, this becomes a tailwind for investors, not a threat.

This report introduces Food is Valuable as a unifying lens that builds on our previous reports, Food is Solvable and Food is Investable. It traces the deferred costs embedded in the current system, the signals that the market is starting to make those hidden costs visible across our four investment themes, and the working definition of value that guides our investing thesis: food is valuable not only when it turns a profit, but also when it generates and preserves the ecological, human, and economic conditions on which all future value depends.

This report explores this thesis in practice through portfolio case studies and measured impact across our company partnerships.

We are not betting on disruption; we are investing in inevitable system shifts already in motion.

Key takeaways

The Deferred Costs Are Coming Due
Today's food system borrows value from soil, health, and ecosystems, and those hidden costs are now being repriced.
‍
A Defining Moment of Convergence
Regulation, consumer behavior, and capital are shifting at once, creating the conditions for a structural reset.
Value Beyond the Financial
The companies reducing these hidden costs create environmental and human value alongside strong financial returns.