Category: Ecosystem Services Payments

What we learned in 2023 about cooling the planet, food as medicine, regenerative renaissance, indigenous knowledge and decommodification

As we are wrapping up 2023 we look back at a year which feels even crazier than 2022. Another war has started and we have been flooded literally with extreme weather events. Every month seems to have been the warmest, driest, wettest etc. in history! Let’s look at what we covered and learned in the podcast!

Chris Tolles – All the venture capital in the world can’t make soils change faster

A conversation with Chris Tolles, founder of Yard Stick, about soil carbon and the connection to changing agriculture practises, insetting vs offsetting, where in the hype cycle the soil carbon market is and why more companies should get really good at doing one thing instead of saying yes to every opportunity.

Ichsani Wheeler and Lenka Danilovic – How to make water our friend again thanks to hippies with satellites and indigenous water management

A conversation with Ichsani Wheeler and Lenka Danilovic. Ichsani is a scientist, co-founder of OpenGeoHub and EnvirometriX, while Lenka is an hydrologist and intern at OpenGeoHub. In this conversation, we talk about the world of remote sensing, and we unpack what the eyes in the sky can help us learn about indigenous land and water management.

Ivo Degn and Philippe Birker – Does a low interest, 3,5% on $2,5 million loan, really qualify as a regenerative investment?

A conversation with Ivo Degn and Philippe Birker, founders of Climate Farmers, about the reason why they picked carbon credits as the first business to focus on, how they recently raised $2,5 million in a very unusual way, at least for a startup, what they consider a regenerative investment and much more.

Sam Kass – Get people access to carrots before talking about nutrient density, former Obama’s chef and nutrition advisor turned investor says

A conversation with Sam Kass, former White House Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition of the Obama’s administration and partner at Acre VC. We talk about the potential of VC in the space, the challenges of the real world and why we should focus on getting everyone access to carrots before focusing on the quality and growing practices, why carbon payments is a very interesting and real entry point to scale, and more.

Tim Coates – Sell flood mitigation to institutional players to finance water cycle restoration

A conversation with Tim Coates, co-founder of Oxbury Bank, the UK’s only specialist agricultural bank, about flood risk mitigation, water quality, water cycle restoration, selling flood mitigation to institutional investors and much more.

Vaughn Tan – What is population wheat, the world’s best restaurants and low intervention wine should teach us about investing in regeneration and uncertainity

A fascinating and wide ranging conversation with Vaughn Tan, author of the Uncertainty Mindset, a fascinating newsletter about not knowing. Vaughn was in the army, worked at Google, studied at some of the world’s best restaurants. We talked about uncertainty vs risk, low-intervention wine, population wheat and so much more.

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

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.

David LeZaks and David Strelneck – Why the USDA gave a $600K grant to figure out how to pay farmers for quality

A conversation with David LeZaks of The Croatan Institute and David Strelneck of Nourish about regeneration and the nourishing economy space, nutrient density and diversity, the connection of soil health and human health and more.

Finian Makepeace – How to get regeneration at the heart of the next US Farm Bill

A conversation with Finian Makepeace, Co-Founder & Policy Director of Kiss the Ground, producer of Kiss The Ground the movie and one of the leaders of Regenerate America, about the Farm Bill in the US, subsidy schemes, how to have a meaningful impact and more.