Using data to scale Regenerative Agriculture

Jun 12

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Introducing the FARM™ Index: Unlocking Where Regenerative Agriculture Practice and Tool Adoption is Most Likely to Thrive

You can’t scale what you can’t find.

For some time, that phrase has become a guiding principle in my work in regenerative agriculture and soil health. In this space, it means knowing where the conditions, motivations, and mindsets are already aligned so your strategy doesn’t stall. Without this knowledge, even the best resources, tools, or programs risk missing their mark.

Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with leaders across the agriculture industry from CPG companies and impact networks to agribusinesses, researchers, and policymakers. A common challenge kept coming up:

“How do we know where regenerative ag adoption is most likely to succeed?”

If you’re reading this, I suspect you’ve faced that same question. I certainly have.

The Challenge: Finding the Right Places to Focus

In agriculture, we often discuss farmer archetypes early adopters, middle adopters, laggards, etc. as a way to understand adoption behaviors. But when it comes to regenerative agriculture, I realized we need a more nuanced approach:

What truly motivates farmers to adopt regenerative practices like no-till and cover cropping or solutions like biostimulants and biologicals?
And perhaps even more importantly, where are these farmers concentrated?

These questions aren’t just academic, they directly affect the success of business strategies, research investments, policy development, program rollouts, and systematic change designed to accelerate regenerative agriculture and build resilience.

Despite abundant data about practice adoption collected by USDA and other sources, there was a gap: No tool combined quantitative adoption data with qualitative insights about farmer behavior and motivations to pinpoint where regenerative adoption is most likely.

The Solution: The FARM Index

This gap inspired me to create the FARM Index (Farmer Adoption of Regenerative Management) a data-driven tool designed to identify where regenerative practice and tool adoption is most likely across U.S. cropland at the county level.

The FARM Index combines:

Quantitative data such as USDA Ag Census statistics on no-till, cover crops, land ownership, and conventional tillage.
Qualitative data on farmer archetypes, motivations, and decision-making behaviors gathered from industry conversations and research.

Counties receive a score from 1 to 5, where:

1 indicates low potential for adoption
5 signals strong likelihood of regenerative practice and tool adoption

This scoring system helps you focus your time, resources, and programs where they will have the greatest impact.

Partial FARM™ Index of Iowa where red indicates low adoption

Or to say it another way, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” (multiple authors) and the FARM index is showing us where those students are raising their hands.

Why the FARM Index Matters

If you’re involved in shaping:

Business direction
Market strategy
Research placement/ investments
Product rollouts
Sustainability programs
Policy and incentives
Natural capital and impact investing

then the FARM Index can help you make smarter, more targeted decisions. Instead of guessing or spreading resources thinly, you can prioritize the regions with the highest likelihood of regenerative adoption.

Imagine being able to say with confidence:

“Let’s target these counties first with our new biofertilizer product rollout.”
“Our incentives program will have the biggest impact if focused here.”
“Our research funding should prioritize this region to maximize adoption and outcomes.”

What’s Next? Let’s Accelerate Regenerative Agriculture Together

The FARM Index is more than a tool, it’s a starting point for collaboration and data-driven growth in regenerative agriculture. I’m excited to share it with the community and would love to connect with you to explore how it could support your goals.

If you’re interested in learning more or seeing a demo, please reach out. Together, we can use data to unlock the potential of regenerative agriculture.

Let's save tomorrows soils today!

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