Clear Frontier Meadowlark Lands Fund I

Date: 2022

Asset Class: Real Assets (Farmland)

Description:  Clear Frontier purchases farmland and transitions it to sustainable, organic farming practices, with a focus on the Corn Belt of the United States. Clear Frontier’s investment strategy centers on purchasing land, identifying top-tier farmer operators to whom to lease the land, and assisting those farmers in transitioning acquired farms to certified organic and regenerative practices. Clear Frontier was incubated through S2G Ventures, a single-LP impact-oriented agriculture technology investor that is a leader in the space. S2G ventures was looking to deploy capital into farmland funds but found no options in the marketplace that suited the impact they were hoping to achieve. They incubated Clear Frontier internally and recruited a team to lead the strategy.

Why We Invest: Regenerative agriculture was ranked by Project Drawdown as one of the top potential solutions (#11 overall) to begin drawing down GHG from the atmosphere. By acquiring farmland and transitioning it to sustainable practices, Clear Frontier helps catalyze systemic changes in U.S. agriculture. Organic agriculture, in contrast to its conventional counterpart, presents a growing opportunity for climate change mitigation and adaptation by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, acting as a carbon sink via soil carbon sequestration, and promoting soil health, biodiversity, and resilient agroecosystems. Furthermore, Clear Frontier’s farmer-first deal terms increase farmers’ long-term income, thereby helping to improve agricultural livelihoods and revitalize farming communities.