Reviving American Farming: Mad Agriculture's Bold Vision, feat. Philip Taylor and Brandon Welch

Back to the People

Mad Agriculture is a credit fund (think bank) that lends to farmers converting farmland to regenerative practices, at a profitable spread. Their mission is to help farmers and ranchers thrive ecologically and economically. They work on-the-ground with producers to create Regenerative Farm Plans, and don’t shy away from dreaming big about the ecological, social and economic potential of regenerative farming. They are healing landscapes that have been mismanaged and need love, care, and stewardship.

Philip Taylor, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of Mad Agriculture. He co-founded the organization in 2016 with his life partner, Nicole Brinks, to reimagine and restore our relationship to the land, sea, and each other through good agriculture. Philip’s work has been published in numerous journals, including Nature, Nature Climate Change, and Ecology, and he has diverse international experience in both private and public sectors, having led research and business efforts throughout North America, Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Brandon Welch is on a mission to create a regenerative revolution in agriculture. In late 2017, he helped launch Mad! to help farmers transition their land to regenerative organic agriculture by providing agronomic and business planning support, building new crop markets, and providing access to aligned capital. Brandon led the launch of Perennial Fund I and Mad Capital, which is now working with farmers on over 79,000 acres in 15 states in the US, on track to transition 10,000 acres of land to certified organic. He manages the Mad Capital team and works actively across the company, spanning sales, credit, operations, asset management, fundraising, and strategic planning.