Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food

Koen van Seijen

We talk to the pioneers in the regenerative food and agriculture space to learn more on how to put our money to work to regenerate soil, people, local communities and ecosystems while making an appropriate and fair return.

  • 1 hour 15 minutes
    297 Chris Henggeler - Standing on the shoulders of giants (Savory, Ingham, Provenza) and managing over 77000 hectares in remote Australia

    A conversation with Chris Henggeler, a second-generation high-density, low-duration herder using herds for land management. From one of the most remote places in Australia, we explore big myths like many animals damage the land, to a huge question: can we actually put the new megafauna to work? Farms need to get smaller, and ranches need to get bigger. If you want to retire in security, you have a vested interest in healthy landscapes.

    How do we invest as if our grandchildren mattered? How do we ground investing in ecology, and what human activity is restraining nature from building wealth? This and much more in the conversation with Chris.

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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/chris-henggeler.

    Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.

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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    26 April 2024, 8:00 am
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    296 Jojo Mehta - Making ecocide a crime in less than 5 years and for less than 6 million dollars

    A conversation with Jojo Mehta, executive director of Stop Ecocide International, about making ecocide a crime, something you can get arrested for and end up in prison. How do we get it from a discussion in lawyer circles and academic circles into international criminal law? And why is it going much faster over the last 5 years than anyone has expected?

    Law: an area we rarely touch but has the potential to shift our food and agriculture system, and many other systems, completely. Making ecocide a crime. Ecocide is broadly understood to mean mass damage and destruction of ecosystems – severe harm to nature which is widespread or long-term. Turning ecocide into a crime, most likely it would also over time change our consciousness and get ecocide into the realm of things you simply don’t do. What is even more fascinating is that large companies actually want this, so it creates a level playing field.

    This episode offers a rare glimpse into the crossroads of legal innovation and climate activism that could forever alter our relationship with the Earth. We examine the extraordinary momentum gained by movements such as Extinction Rebellion and youth-led climate strikes as well as we pay tribute to the late Polly Higgins, a tireless advocate whose vision of legal reform continues to inspire action. Unveiling the intricate dance of defining ecocide, this conversation brings to light the necessity of a legal framework adaptable to the evolving methods of environmental harm, forecasting a world where atrocities against nature are no longer tolerated.

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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/jojo-mehta

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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    23 April 2024, 3:00 pm
  • 1 hour 18 minutes
    295 Mateusz Ciasnocha and Maria Virginia Solis Wahnish – From EU Soil Mission to Pope Francis, how to change local and state agriculture and food policies

    A conversation with Maria Virginia Solis Wahnish and Mateusz Ciasnocha, both involved in the Farm of Francesco. Maria Virginia is founder of Drink Matera, while Mateusz is the CEO of European Carbon Farmers and member of the EU Soil Mission board. We discuss why it is so important to connect with policymakers and how to actually do that, the importance of farmers' education and a very detailed answer to the 1 billion euro question to enable many more people to get involved in farming. And what has Pope Francis to do with all of this?

    How connecting with those who shape our policies can start with a simple visit to a local farm? We delve into the power of personal actions to instigate systemic change, encouraging policymakers to experience the daily life of farmers, paving the way for more grounded and beneficial agricultural policies. The episode culminates with an exploration of the symbiotic relationships between farmers, policymakers, and investors and the transformation of communities through a billion-dollar vision that places technology, collaboration, and human ingenuity at its heart.

    This podcast is part of the AI 4 Soil Health project which aims to help farmers and policy makers by providing new tools powered by AI to monitor and predict soil health across Europe. For more information visit ai4soilhealth.eu.

    Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

    This work has received funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant numbers 10053484, 1005216, 1006329].

    This work has received funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/mateusz-ciasnocha-maria-virginia-solis-wahnish.

    Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.

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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    16 April 2024, 3:00 pm
  • 1 hour 7 minutes
    294 Emiliano Mroue – Raising $7.5 million to scale from working with 20.000 to 100.000 farmers

    A conversation with Emiliano Mroue, founder of WARC, about their recent funding round, being close to the farmers and why he left a corporate job in Germany to start a farmer focussed anti poverty company in Sierra Leone which turned into a company serving today over 20000 farmers, mostly in Ghana, in the transition to more regenerative practices. What is their secret to be close to the farmers always, not quite often but always?

    Smallholder maize farmers at the edge of the Sahara, brutal circumstances in the Sahel mean most farmers are growing to eat and to survive and, with climate change and current farming practices burn and deep tilling, their survival is literally on the line. These soils can be depleted in a decade or less, not like in the global North where we might have 50 to 60 harvests left. So how do you go about behaviour change with farmers that are in poverty, you want to help them to change, but don’t want to risk their fragile livelihood? How do you find the recipes that work in the local context?

    In March 2024, the Ghana-based agricultural service provider Warc Africa has successfully closed its Series B round, securing $7.5 million. The fresh capital raised aims to boost Warc Africa’s reach to serve over 100,000 farmers in Ghana, increase their incomes, and protect the soils. 

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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/emiliano-mroue/.

    Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.

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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    12 April 2024, 8:00 am
  • 1 hour 13 minutes
    293 Sonja Stuchtey - Have billions flow into regeneration by having accountants agree that it is an investment, not a cost

    A conversation with Sonja Stuchtey, co-founder of The Landbanking Group, about innovative financial strategies, accountancy standards and rules, reliable sourcing, better quality and lower prices, investing in the value chain and more.

    Let’s say you are an orange juice or chocolate bar producer: your margins are under pressure because the costs of buying raw ingredients have exploded the last few years. What do you do? In any other business you would likely invest in your supply to secure reliable sourcing, better quality and potentially lower prices. Why haven’t we done that in regen ((with some exceptions of fully vertically integrated brands)? Now it seems possible for companies to invest in their value chain so to allow orange farmers to make regen changes in the practises to future proof them. 
    How? Crucially it comes back to treat it as a long term investment and not as a short term cost which will hurt you margins and, thus, annoy your shareholders. Treating investments (which btw we need billions) in regen as an investment and not a cost sounds so trivial and simple, but it takes a whole lot of technology to measure, report and a lot of talks with the big four accountancy firms to get this done. 

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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/sonja-stuchtey.

    Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.

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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    9 April 2024, 3:00 pm
  • 1 hour 21 minutes
    292 Walking the land with regenerative farmer Matteo Mazzola, Iside Farm

    This is a special episode, the first one ever of the Walking the Land with a Regenerative Farmer, where we walk the land of the farm with a farmer while we talk about regeneration.

    [On Youtube you can find a video version of this same conversation!]

    Walking through Iside Farm on the Iseo Lake in Italy, with regenerative farmer Matteo Mazzola, we unlock the secrets of regenerative agriculture as we traverse the innovative landscapes crafted by Matteo, Paola and the Iside crew. We embark on a profound exploration of sustainable farming, showcasing Matteo's expertise in farm design, water systems, and the integration of olive trees and animals into the land. Learn how access ways are more than just paths across a farm; they're a vital component in the flow of energy and resources, helping to prevent erosion with concrete strips and alfalfa, and offering additional crop space. Matteo's wisdom extends to the creative reuse of shipping containers, illustrating a commitment to terraforming that marries functionality with environmental stewardship.

    At Iside they don't just farm: they are crafting ecosystems where water management is an art and conservation a priority. The episode reveals an inventive water system where ponds atop container roofs serve a triple purpose: roofing, water storage, and purification. From aquaponics to sweet water mollusks, Matteo's methods for quality food production are a testament to his ingenious approach to agriculture. Hear about the noble efforts to combat drought in the Alps and the techniques that are breathing life into arid terrains, transforming them into lush waterscapes.

    Our discussion further delves into the future of Iside Farm, the power of education, and the importance of distinguishing between consumers and customers when it comes to environmental responsibility. Matteo shares his vision about the synergy of beauty and function in landscapes, a reminder of the transformative potential that regenerative agriculture holds for creating more sustainable and inviting ecosystems.

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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/matteo-mazzola-2.

    Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.
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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for inves

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    2 April 2024, 3:00 pm
  • 1 hour 1 minute
    291 Adrien Pelletier - Why all farmers or most farmers need to become seed breeders again

    A conversation with Adrien Pelletier, farmer, breeder, and baker, about wheat, seeds, no till organic farming, why all farmers or most farmers need to become seed breeders again, and why it is really difficult to bake sourdough with traditional organic wheat seeds that are not breed for high productive farms.

    Why Adrien want to start changing the world in the most difficult place, at home, which is a large industrial, mostly extractive, commodity wheat-growing region in France? Picture a sea of wheat, large relatively flat fields and no trees. He argues we are in the prehistoric area of organic farming, and there is so much to discover, especially around population wheats. We also learn about no till organic farming is the way to go (and super difficult).
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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/adrien-pelletier.

    Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.

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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    26 March 2024, 4:00 pm
  • 1 hour 12 minutes
    290 Chris Bloomfield and Daniel Reisman – We need animals outside to feed the planet sustainably

    A conversation with Chris Bloomfield and Daniel Reisman, co-founders of Collie, a provider of virtual cow guidance system for managing production in grazing, about enabling regenerative dairy, how virtually fencing and cow guidance drastically reduce labour and boost production. To feed ourselves and the planet sustainably, we need to include animals as part of agriculture. We dive deep into going from vegan to grazing, animal welfare, and the state of our planet. How do we enable more farmers to hold complexity on their farms? How do we use technology to enable complexity instead of using technology to make everything mono, as we have done in the last 50 years?

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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/chris-bloomfield-daniel-reisman.

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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    22 March 2024, 9:00 am
  • 58 minutes 28 seconds
    289 Clint Brauer - After an investment of Chipotle, ready to scale his robots to weed hundreds of thousands of acres

    A check-in interview with Clint Brauer, founder and CEO of Greenfield, company powering chemical-free agriculture with advanced AI-powered robots, about his dream to get chemicals and expensive machinery out of broad acre, row crop farming (AKA soy corn farming which currently occupies millions of acres around the world, especially in large industrialised agriculture countries), the ending of the era of the chemical, and much more.

    After interviewing Clint in September 2020, we check in on what has changed; farmers and many others in the space see that the era of chemicals is ending. It might not look like that yet, but we have already won: chemical-free, broad-acre farming is totally possible; now it is about execution. What else has changed? Is Clint still interested in integrating animals, and why has Chipotle invested in the company?
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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/clint-brauer-2.

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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    19 March 2024, 4:00 pm
  • 1 hour 8 minutes
    288 Alfred Grand – Why an Austrian farmer and researcher trained by earthworms is very excited about AI

    A conversation with Alfred Grand, farmer at Grand Farm, an organic farm with a high proportion of research, about vermicompost and seed inoculation, but also what policymakers should know about farming. Plus, the role of technology in the regenerative transition and why Alfred is so excited about AI and robotics.

    Have you ever witnessed a complete transformation that strikes at the very heart of our connection to the earth? Alfred's path from bike mechanic to pioneering farmer at Grand Farm is one such tale, rich with insights on the symbiosis of technology and tradition in the quest for a sustainable future.

    In today's conversation, we navigate the complexities of regenerative farming, challenging the dated notion of soil as a mere nutrient sponge. Alfred, with wisdom gleaned from hands-on experience and research, speaks on the necessity for a paradigm shift in agricultural education and policy. His passion for sustainable practices extends beyond the farm, shedding light on the profound implications these methods have on climate resilience, societal well-being, and our global sustainability goals.

    Alfred shares his enthusiasm for the synergy of AI and robotics with timeless farming techniques. We explore how these advances could elevate the intuition and efficiency of market gardening, changing the landscape of agriculture.

    This podcast is part of the AI 4 Soil Health project which aims to help farmers and policy makers by providing new tools powered by AI to monitor and predict soil health across Europe. For more information visit ai4soilhealth.eu.

    Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

    This work has received funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant numbers 10053484, 1005216, 1006329].

    This work has received funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/alfred-grand.

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    Th

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

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    12 March 2024, 4:00 pm
  • 53 minutes 36 seconds
    287 Sebastiaan Huisman - Farmers die slowly

    A conversation with Sebastiaan Huisman, large-scale organic farmer and advisor, about consulting on many large farm transitions, including the British royal family and working with Wildfarmed. Why is he so optimistic about biodynamic, holistic, and regenerative farming, and why does it all start with children?

    Picking apples on an biodynamic farm at age 12 led to setting up one of the largest biodynamic farms in Europe, almost 2000 hectares in Poland, on very very poor soil, Sebastian had an incredible journey from that Dutch farm to the creation of one of Europe's largest biodynamic farms. As he shares his story, we'll uncover the transformative impact of regenerative agriculture, not just on the soil but also on the very heart of the community. 

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    More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/sebastiaan-huisman.

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    The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

    https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/

    Support the Show.

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    8 March 2024, 9:00 am
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