Reparative Investing and Due Diligence with Black Farmer Fund
Preface
In the fall of 2023, we, four students from the School of the Environment and School of Management at Yale University (Monica Charletta (MBA/MEM ‘25), India Gupta (MBA ‘24), Sophia Hampton (JD/MESc ‘25) and Bennett Olupo (MEM ‘24) worked under Charles Wade, the investment director of Black Farmer Fund, through the Regenerative Agriculture Lab clinic offered by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. We used our combined background in finance, agriculture, and environmental and racial justice to support Black Farmer Fund in building out a due diligence process for integrated capital while upholding reparative investing practices. We received a rich education in the necessity and power of reparative investing given the ongoing context of systemic racism in agriculture and finance today, collected and synthesized in the following blog post on our learnings and reflections from this work.
A key takeaway from our time with Black Farmer Fund is that the processes behind their investments are as important as the investments themselves. An emphasis on relationships, democratic decision making, moving with consensus, and trust is built into the bones of Black Farmer Fund as an investment fund, and thus their actions ripple outward in the same manner. Akin to Julius Nyerere, Black Farmer Fund understands that the quest towards liberation and food sovereignty requires true community building. It is a deliberate and fruitful process.
