Category: Nutrients to Soil

Matteo Mazzola – Walking the land of Iside Farm with a regenerative farmer

2nd April 2024 koenvanseijen Landscape Design 2.0, Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture, Walking the Land with a Regenerative Farmer 0 Comments

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. 

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.

Chris Bloomfield and Daniel Reisman – We need animals outside to feed the planet sustainably

22nd March 2024 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of Animals 0 Comments

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?

Abby Rose – On raising non-extractive funding and the power of AI to help farmers with observation

20th February 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Farmers First Tech, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Abby Rose, co-founder of Vidacycle and Farmerama, about the role and potential of AI in observation, alternative investment, the power of transparency, why regenerative viticulture is so interesting, and more.

Why did someone who didn’t really need the money and had serious and reasonable questions about the tendency of startups, both in and outside the regenerative space, to keep raising money, ended up raising funding? Not in a traditional, potentially extractive way, but a revenue share, and service fee, and a cap.

Brett Hundley – From Tyson Foods equity analyst to financing millions of trees

13th February 2024 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Landscape Design 2.0, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Brett Hundley, President of Agroforestry Partners (AP), a fund that invests in agroforestry projects on farmland with the strategy of providing uncorrelated and attractive nature-based investment opportunities for investors.
We talk about moving away from an agricultural system that relies on annuals to a system that relies more on perennial trees. If trees are the answer to whatever the question is, how do we get millions of more trees into the ground?

How do we finance them, and how do we make the key stakeholders, the farmers- that need to give agroforestry operators access to their land for 20 40 or maybe a 100 years- comfortable with these farming systems? How do we get comfortable with writing these checks the other essential stakeholder investors that need to pour hundreds of millions into an industry and a system they are not really used to, with long time horizons (chestnuts, for instance, take 7 to 9 years before they bare fruit but could produce for at least 50 or even hundreds of years)?

Eric Smith – Commoditization is the root cause of all ecological destruction and human health impacts

2nd January 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrient Density in Food, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture 5 Comments

A conversation with Eric Smith, CEO and co-founder of Edacious, who is building a technology platform for differentiating quality of food. Eric and Koen talk about measuring quality and how to turn around objectively one of the most complex systems ever, from one driven by chemicals to one driven by biology, with abundance as an outcome. The solution, according to Eric, is radical transparency.

Taimur Malik – From Wall Street through GM cotton to founding Drawdown Farm in the desert of Pakistan

12th December 2023 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture, Short Food Webs 0 Comments

A conversation with Taimur Malik, founder of Drawdown Farm, a regenerative organic, biomimetic, no-till carbon farm in the Thal desert in Pakistan, about how they built one of the largest Johnson and Su compost facilities, plus the largest vermicompost in Pakistan. We talk about inputs, outputs, and why the timing is now for a regenerative transition in Pakistan and beyond!

Rodger Savory – Restore the water cycles and reverse desertification in California, regenerating 150.000 acres with 600.000 cows

17th November 2023 koenvanseijen Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of Animals, Water Cycles 0 Comments

A conversation with Rodger Savory, ecologist, land manager, and ranch owner, about scale and cows, how to kickstart regeneration in desert situations, changing local weather patterns, abundance, soil bacteria, conventional agriculture, WW2 and much more.

Fides Lapidaire and Yanna Hoek – Why human shit is going to save the world

4th April 2023 koenvanseijen Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Fides Lapidaire and Yanna Hoek, the creators of Holy Shit, a documentary on how our shit can feed the world, about human shit or human treasure as they like to call it, the gap in our circular food system, the need for a mindset shift, the technology needed and more.

Angus McIntosh – Going from Goldman’s trading desk to regen farming in South Africa

7th March 2023 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Ecosystem Services Payments, Farmers First Tech, Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrient Density in Food, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of Animals, Short Food Webs 1 Comment

A wide-ranging conversation with Angus McIntosh, a regenerative ag pioneer in South Africa, about markets, carbon, nutrient density, cobalt, chemical-based fertilizer, large distribution, and so much more. He is the founder of the Farmer Angus brand.

Matt Chatfield – I’m too lazy to farm against nature

18th October 2022 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Ecosystem Services Payments, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of Animals, Short Food Webs 3 Comments

A conversation with Matt Chatfield, the founder of Cornwall Project, to talk about the crucial impact of ruminants on land, how to build a successful business by farming with nature, and how to create a guaranteed market.