Way to Grow: UVA Batten hosts symposium on transforming America’s food system for people and the planet

Back in the mid-20th century, Americans were spending about $2 on healthcare for every dollar spent on food. These days, we are spending double that on healthcare, according to Jeff Tkach, CEO of the Rodale Institute. A primary reason behind the statistic, he said, is deteriorating nutrition in our diet.  

Tkach spoke at the organization’s 4th annual Farms-to-Institution Symposium, hosted by UVA Batten professor and chief innovation officer Christine Mahoney. The event brought together about 85 institutional leaders, chefs, and small farm entrepreneurs. Together, they explored relationships between large institutions, like hospitals and universities, and local food producers. 

UVA connects with local growers 

A key component of regenerative farming is ensuring small farmers have a reliable market for their products. Michael Carter, Jr., an 11th generation farmer in Central Virginia was contacted several years ago by UVA Dine to supply fresh, local, organic vegetables for student meals from his farm.  

“I’m a farmer at heart, so I always want to plant seeds,” and those early conversations were the seeds to a business partnership, Carter told the audience. “I applaud UVA for taking the step to work with us, to figure out what we need so we could work better with them,” said Carter. 

In 2021, UVA Dine listed 31 farms and food business within 145-miles where it sourced products. In 2023, 37% of UVA Dine and Medical Center food and beverage budget was sustainable (according to criteria of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education). That’s 7% over UVA’s goal for sustainable food purchases by 2030.  

Funding the farms 

“Our theory of change is about creating viable farming businesses, and having a market is crucial,” Michael Reilly said. Reilly is co-founder and CEO of Foodshed Capital, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit providing low-cost loans to small farms and food entrepreneurs. 

“It needs to go beyond local farmers markets. They need institutions to sell into.”  Started in 2018, his organization has provided a total of $5.5 million in capital, mostly in the East, he said.  

The real key to changing America’s broken food system is a change of mindset — for policymakers, elected officials, and consumers, he said.  “A lot of the challenge is the perception that food should be cheap,” Reilly said. “Food is cheap because it’s highly processed, proving our downfall from a health and environmental standpoint. Producing good food comes at a cost, and farmers need to be paid that cost.”  

Batten family farm makes a big shift 

In 2018, Oakencroft Farm & Winery in Albemarle County was purchased by lifelong conservationist Dorothy Batten (whose father, Frank Batten, Sr.’s donation, established the Batten School).  

“My goal in purchasing it was to protect it from development, restore the land after years of poor cattle management, replant trees, enrich the soil, and support greater biodiversity,” writes Batten in her Oakencroft bio. 

Oakencroft farm manager Logan Collins came to the Rodale conference for “inspiration and connections,” he said. The farm has been steadily shifting to more sustainable practices growing grapes and raising livestock, he said. The farm has also planted several thousand trees to store carbon, which not only helps the climate, it also feeds essential microbes in the soil. “I know it’s making the land better.”   

And, as Rodale’s Tkach framed the conference at the start: Healthy soil means healthy food, and that means healthy people.  

Mahoney captured the spirit of the conversation, noting that, “Regenerative agriculture is a powerful force for rural economic development — it supports farmers in securing better, healthier yields, while also making healthier margins so that farms can thrive for decades to come. It was inspirational hearing from the entrepreneurial farmers, the innovative impact investors, and the forward-thinking institutions, like UVA Dine, that are helping grow this movement toward a healthier food system.”