Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food

A group of farmers started one of the first organic companies in the US, 30 years ago on Montana.----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- This time I had the great pleasure to interview Liz Carlisle, writer of the Lentil Underground, the amazing story about how five farmers created one of the first organic companies in the US. We discussed how and why she went from country singer to writer! While singing for farmers she kept hearing the issues of farmers. Many farmers in the US work just as hard as before but can’t earn enough anymore to put food on the table. Which is ironic because they are supposed to be growing it. Liz came across this story of 5 farmers in Montana who set up Timeless Food, to market organic lentils (which they were using in their organic grain rotations). But no one was eating lentils or legumes at the time, let alone organic ones. A few things which surprised Liz while writing the book:Many farmers have a global viewFarmers are incredible scientistsThey operate on very complex 10 year rotations between grains, livestock, legumes etc.It takes a long time to build a solid foundation for a values based company, but when that is done you can grow faster. We discussed why Timeless Seeds started 30 years ago:There was a cycle of crisis in the commodity agriculture business Input costs were so high to force people to look for ways to reduce inputs (they started using legume cover crops to insert nitrogen into the soil) Grain prices were so low, people were looking for outside the commodity system.This provided the perfect storm for a new company focussed on selling the cover crop and some extra income to the farmers. Liz's advice for impact investors who want to get into the regenerative agriculture space: Place based, really getting to know the local place! Regenerative agriculture is all about fitting the agricultural system to the place rather than having this one standard one opposed all over the world. Get to know the place/ecosystem really well and find the missing piece of the puzzle for a regenerative agriculture system. As an impact investor you can help to accelerate that transition which needs to come by creating those markets. Show notes and links: Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Find out more about the position here:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4278379588 Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

What is sustainability in wine and where do you start?----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- Recently I interviewed Michele Manelli, of Salcheto wine Montepulciano Italy. We discussed what it means to be a sustainable wine pioneer in Italy and where to start if you start from scratch. Also Michele shared how he influencing other wine companies in Italy and not 'just' his 50 hectares in Tuscany. The wine industry has to reinvent itself and sustainability should be at its core. Michele:'More and more people are ready to put their sustainable values beside their other values (quality and price, service)''Biggest problem is: transparency of the sustainability certifications''Very fragmented distribution channels, distribution partners are not investing in it or pushing it (sustainability). ''Less standards more solid standards'Michele and his colleagues have set up a new solid sustainability standard in Italy to move the whole industry (and not just some niches) to sustainability. The next phase for Salcheto lies not on environmental sustainability but on social. They introduced the first Welfare plan for vineyard employees in Italy. They are hosting children of local schools at the vineyard and turning them into sustainability ambassadors.Show notes and links:www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2017/09/06/michele-manelli. Please hit the share button if you think this interview is relevant for someone you know!----------------------------------------------------------- For feedback, ideas, suggestions please contact us through Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, or get in touch through the website www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com. Join our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P. 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.Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Find out more about the position here:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4278379588 https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

The role of investors in this agricultural and societal revolution.----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- Recently I interviewed Rhamis Kent and we discuss the role of investors in scaling up the regenerative agriculture business. But also what is an investor? What makes him or her different from a gambler or speculator??Rhamis: We need more people to think, 'I’m safe as you are safe, I’m in danger if you are in danger'On scaling up the regenerative agriculture sector:'Success breeds success, we need bigger and better projects to show to people that this works'Show notes and links:www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2017/08/21/rhamis-kent. Please hit the share button if you think this interview is relevant for someone you know!----------------------------------------------------------- For feedback, ideas, suggestions please contact us through Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, or get in touch through the website www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com. Join our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P. 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.Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Find out more about the position here:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4278379588 https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

Selling heritage chickens from farmers using holistic management. ----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- This time I had the pleasure to interview Jesse Solomon, CEO and founder of who are reinventing the chicken industry from the ground up (literally). By focusing on raising slow-growing chickens entirely on pasture, with practices that create healthy soil and regenerate the land. We luckily had time to discuss many things in the interview! How Jesse went from eating meat, to being a vegetarian (after reading the book Eating animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. To hunting his own meat and cook it for his family and friends and finally setting up an heritage chicken company. Some more points we discussed: Our current food industry is really good ad getting a lot of bad food to as many people as possible for the lowest price.Organic was really good to teach people to look at labels, and now we need to teach them beyond the labelsYou need them (the chickens) to be warriors in this system and agents of that healthy changeHalf of what we do is rebuild the supply chain the other half is educationLargest challenge for impact investors to get into the regenerative livestock space: their time horizon and return profile!We discussed transparency and how Emmer & Co pioneers with showing the whole process, for instance through their Chicken experience.A question for you: who knows any models (selling different parts/crops of a regenerative agriculture farms) in the rest of the world, Europe etc.? Show notes and links:www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2017/07/21/jesse-solomon. ----------------------------------------------------------- For feedback, ideas, suggestions please contact us through Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, or get in touch through the website www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com. Join our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P. The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intendedThoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Find out more about the position here:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4278379588 Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

Experienced impact investor about her first impact investments and important blended capital is in the food system of the future. ----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- I had the great pleasure of interviewing Renske Linde, impact investor and co founder of Food System 6 (FS6) a nonprofit organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area that is working to transform our current industrial food system into a new model that is focused on environmental, physical and social health. They run a very interesting cohort for disruptive food entrepreneurs www.foodsystem6.org. We discussed how Renske ended up in the space and why it is so important to look at the whole food system and not just the producing/agriculture part. And why non profits and blended capital are so important for the development of the space. Show notes and linkswww.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2017/07/28/renske-lynde. ----------------------------------------------------------- For feedback, ideas, suggestions please contact us through Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, or get in touch through the website www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com. Join our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P. 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.Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Find out more about the position here:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4278379588 https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

Co-Founder of Terra Genesis and how to bring diversity to the market and much more. ----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- This time I interview Gregory Landua founder and CEO of www.terra-genesis.com an international regenerative design consultancy. His goal is to “transfer as much of the agriculture landscape as possible, to draw down carbon and uplift the local communities” To do that we need to look systemically and target the businesses who are making the big purchases and adding value to the ingredients. Then we dived into the difficulties of “The logistics of bringing diversity to the market place”. Everything is build around mono crops, coming from a few immense farms and a few players spread to very diverse customers (us). “If a farmer no longer has to optimise for a single crop in order to sell bulk and have very low margins, but could sell 5 or even 10 different crops of of the same piece of land. And have those crops efficiently distributed to all of the different buyers, in a way that system of supply can aggregate at the appropriate scales and then distribute at the appropriate scales. We would have a system of supply which can meet a healthy ecosystem where it’s at.”A potential solution: software to allow distributed purchases from diverse agri eco systems. That’s why Gregory and his team are working on Agrispecific Blockchains. Tips from Gregory on how to start in impact investing in Regenerative Agriculture:Where are places where I already have some ideas on the extractive economy looks like. If it’s vegetables, or commodities, te coffee, cosmetics, or real estate. And then ask yourself the question: “what might a play look like in the new disruptive, distributed, regenerative economy in this place where I’m already excited about?”Show notes and links:www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2017/07/05/gregory-landua. ----------------------------------------------------------- For feedback, ideas, suggestions please contact us through Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, or get in touch through the website Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Find out more about the position here:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4278379588 https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

Writer of Cows save the Planet and Water in Plain sight, examples from around the world on what is possible with soil.----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- In this podcast I interviewed Judith D. Schwarz, a journalist whose recent work looks at soil as a hub for multiple environmental, economic and social challenges-and solutions. She wrote Cows Save the Planet and recently Water in Plain Sight. Both highly recommended when you want to learn more about what is possible with soil and agriculture. We discussed how she ended up looking at Soil and why she is so enthusiastic about nature's way of solving issues. How does natural systems work to manage a particular problem? (in this case heat or carbonPlants are running the showPlant life is cooling the planetPlants manage water and by managing water they manage heatWe 'devegetated' about 25% of the planet with pavements, buildings, industrial agriculture and deforestationFinancial system doesn’t make any sense because we are rewarded for things that don’t create any wealth but from extraction (it only makes sense in the short term)Most people don't know that we can restore large scale ecosystemsShow notes and links:www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2017/06/05/judith-d-schwartz. ----------------------------------------------------------- For feedback, ideas, suggestions please contact us through Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, or get in touch through the website www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com. Join our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P. 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.Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Find out more about the position here:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4278379588 https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course Find out more about our Generation-Re investment syndicate:https://gen-re.land/ Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

Taking the landscape approach when investing in regenerative agriculture.----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- This time I interviewed Dr. Sara Scherr, co founder and CEO of EcoAgriculture partners and we discussed things like the stranded assets in traditional (chemical) agriculture (11T dollar).why more agriculture companies are getting involved in landscape restoration: 'They see risks they can’t manage only inside their farm/ company' so they look at landscapes and whole ecosystems. why every portfolio has exposure to chemical agriculture and that turns out to be risky. You need to look at Landscape scale/Ecosystem scale to really understand the risks of your investments. what you need to look for in landscape partnerships to identify the good ones where you can make investments. Good local partnerships greatly reduce the risk of agriculture investments. And we discussed some tools Sara and her team are working on:a tool for investors to find Landscape Partnerships which are working (and thus greatly reducing the risks of the investment) tools and methodes for larger financial institutions to screen their current agriculture investment portfolio for stranded assets. Or at least make sure they don't to add more stranded assets to their portfolio.Show notes and links:www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2017/05/10/sara-scherr. ----------------------------------------------------------- For feedback, ideas, suggestions please contact us through Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, or get in touch through the website www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com. Join our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P. 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.Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Find out more about the position here:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4278379588 https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

How do we bring land tenures to the hundreds of millions small holder farmers around the world?----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- I interviewed Thomas Vaassen co-founder of Landmapp/Meridia. Thomas and his co founder ended up working on land tenures because it seemed the key factor in how to unlock value for economic development for small holder farmers. Thomas shared his experience of building this startup on the ground in Ghana. How they pivoted and changed many of their first assumptions as soon as they started working with real customers:) They took an ancient system of land rights/tenures and digitalise some parts of it, so land rights could finally reach most of the farmers and not just a few. Because without land documentation no farmer will ever invest in their land because it could be taken away any moment.Show notes and links:www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2017/05/01/thomas-vaassen. I’m a small angel investor in Landmapp.----------------------------------------------------------- For feedback, ideas, suggestions please contact us through Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, or get in touch through the website www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com. Join our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P. 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.Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Find out more about the position here:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4278379588 https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

Founder of Wildlife works on investing in community based forestry and agriculture projects in Kenya and Congo.----------------------------------------------------------Welcome to Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food.Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits here: www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Other ways to support our work:- Share the podcast - Give a 5-star rating- Or buy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------- A few months ago I interviewed Mike Korchinsky, founder and CEO of WildlifeWorks, active in Kenya and Congo working with local communities to protect their forests. We had the time (55 min) to discuss many things, from how Mike got into the space, what co2 credits mean for his company etc. Only during the last 15 minutes we discussed the role of Impact Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Forestry. Listening to it again I felt that these 15 minutes offer a lot of great insights as a standalone interview, so with permission of Mike, I'm sharing them here. www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2017/05/07/mike-korchinsky-2. Enjoy,Koen----------------------------------------------------------- For feedback, ideas, suggestions please contact us through Twitter @KoenvanSeijen, or get in touch through the website www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.com. Join our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P. 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.Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!Thank you to our Field Builders Circle for supporting us. Learn more hereSupport the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!