By becoming a member of the mutual, you join with other farmers across Australia in creating a company that helps you be rewarded for nurturing Australia’s natural environment.

Services

The mutual provides a range of services that help farmers create environmental and economic value – whether through productivity gains, food & fibre supply chains, or environmental markets.

Fees

There is an annual fee of $30 to become and maintain membership. Members have access to the education and training resources of the mutual, and receive an invitation to events and member-only assemblies which we use to help guide the development of the mutual.

Governance

The mutual is governed by a 5 member board that is elected by members democratically (ie. each member has one vote). Additionally, there is a member council that meets fortnightly that provides a mechanism for members to have a day-to-day voice in the operations of the mutual.

Profits

In the event, that the mutual generates surplus profits, members may be entitled to rebates on fees paid. The payment of such rebates is subject to the discretion of the board. For this reason, we keep a record of all fees paid by members over time in their Member Rebate Balance.

Why a farmer mutual?

A farmer-owned mutual enables farmers to aggregate their market power – to create a trusted advisor that enables them to better engage in environmental outcomes. By avoiding the middle men, farmers can retain much more value from transactions. Shared ownership of the infrastructure also enables greater efficiencies in training, execution and compliance, and broadens the types of transactions and the value captured from data and provenance. And importantly, it creates a mechanism to attract private capital to invest in credible and well structured transactions that work for farmers and the environment.

How the mutual began

Regen Farmers Mutual was formed in July 2021. We were born from a 12 month co-design process with farmers, landcarers and others working in agricultural landscapes. You can find recordings of these co-design sessions here.

In December 2021, we completed a $500,000 equity raise for Regen Digital to build the digital platform to help farmers collect and share the farm data to prove environmental claims.

In July 2022, the platform was officially launched in beta and our first members joined.

In September 2022, we commenced our first Landscape Impact Program, funded by the Queensland government’s Land Restoration Fund. This pilot program was completed in March 2023.

How it delivers its services

As a farmer-owned business, the mutual is focussed on creating the digital infrastructure, transaction processes and governance structures that enable farmers to optimise environmental outcomes. It is partnering with existing farmer and member organisations to deliver distributed services such as farmer support, training and network development. The margin structure of transactions will provide for these services, and underpin a sustainable revenue stream for its partner farmer networks. In this way, the mutual can maximise returns to its farmer members, while leveraging the networks that they belong to.

How we’re structured

Regen Farmers Mutual Ltd is a Company Limited by Guarantee – this means it has no ordinary shares and it is democratically controlled by its members. Farmers become a member by using services of the mutual or its affiliates, and paying an annual membership fee of $30.

Regen Digital Pty Ltd is a majority owned subsidiary of the mutual that was created to provide the digital services that members use to collect, analyse and share their farm data.