Claire Huntley Lafave

Claire Lafave
Industry Positions Manager of Client Strategy for Native Energy, Native Energy
Degree Programs Yale School of Management, MBA, 2020 Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Masters of Environmental Management, 2020
Affiliations Native Energy Native Energy

Claire is passionate about investing in farmers and natural resource managers to help them transition to regenerative and climate-friendly practices. She is currently working as a Manager of Client Strategy for Native, a carbon project developer based in Burlington, helping to expand their regenerative agriculture offerings. She holds a B.A. in English and Environmental Studies from Williams College and an M.B.A. and Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of Environment. In her free time, Claire loves to hike, rock climb, practice yoga, and garden.aire managed farm-to-school programming at three public schools on Martha’s Vineyard, worked on a variety of small farms across the continent, and taught at a project-based school in the Bay Area.

Claire graduated from Williams College with a degree in English and Environmental Studies. In her free time, she loves to hike and rock climb, practice yoga, and garden.

Authored Articles
Markets for a range of grains can grow widely and quickly

Businesses big and small can drive growth for regenerative growth across a range of crops. 

Show Me the Money: Making a Downstream Market for Diverse Regenerative Crops

Claire Huntley Lafave, Cortney Ahern Renton, Katie Sierks
In the words of the great agricultural philosopher Liza Minnelli, “Money makes the world go round.” Most stakeholders RAI interviewed across agricultural supply chains, especially farmers, want to grow crops and raise livestock in a sustainable way. Yet this desire to minimize environmental harm is not feasible if it creates...
Cover Crops for All Day with RAI

Farmers' informal networks can drive progress for finance, food and the farming business. The RAI visited pioneers in Iowa in 2018. 

Farmers on the Frontlines of the Regenerative Agriculture Transition

Cortney Ahern Renton, Claire Huntley Lafave, Katie Sierks
Achieving the transition from conventional to regenerative agriculture will require a major shift in the strategy and behavior of many of America’s two million farmers. For a farmer, farming for healthy soils, ecosystems, communities and climate conflicts at many points with conventional agriculture practice. Wider success comes only from the...
Regenerative ag's open for business- and investment

This "beyond organic" farm in New York's Hudson Valley earned capital from a REIT that saw its growth potential. 

So, You're Thinking of Investing in Regenerative Food Systems...

Cortney Ahern Renton, Claire Huntley Lafave, Katie Sierks
The traditional landscape of farmland ownership and financing in the United States thwarts the adoption of regenerative agriculture. First, farmland is expensive. Farm real estate prices have doubled in the last decade. But models have emerged to power regenerative practices forward. These include concessionary capital, financing from real estate investment...
Is this the way to crop reform?

(Photo courtesy of Pexels.com) Farmers can deliver steeper returns to themselves, their ecosystem, and their economy when their insurance system makes more sense. 

The Case for Crop Insurance Reform

Cortney Ahern Renton, Claire Huntley Lafave, Katie Sierks
Across the political spectrum, most Americans have favorable opinions of farmers and are happy with the idea that the federal government provides financial assistance to help pay for crop insurance. If they knew crop insurance's full cost, that might change. This system, while well-intentioned, leaves out the majority of farmers...
Regenerative agriculture begins here

How deeply can regenerative farming affect the way societies value farming- and farmers build value? (Photo courtesy of Lukas via Pexels.) 

The State of Regenerative Agriculture: Growing With Room to Grow More

Cortney Ahern Renton, Claire Huntley Lafave, Katie Sierks
This article, by The Regenerative Agriculture Initiative (RAI) team at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY), is the first in a series on key opportunities to accelerate regenerative agriculture in the United States. At today’s rate of soil degradation, some scientists predict the world’s topsoil could be...