Tag: soil

Alfred Grand – Why an Austrian farmer and researcher trained by earthworms is very excited about AI

12th March 2024 koenvanseijen AI 4 Soil Health, Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 1 Comment

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 he is so excited about AI and robotics.
Dive deep in the story of a bike mechanic turned farmer and researcher, who has been trained by millions earthworms!

Emma Chow and Koen van Seijen – Lessons learned from the Regen Mind series

2nd February 2024 koenvanseijen Regenerative Agriculture, Regenerative Mind 0 Comments

This is the wrap-up of the Regen Mind series, where Emma shares more about her motivation for this series, her lessons learned, the themes that emerged, and of course, her surprises like like how quickly the conversations evolved from mind/mindset to consciousness. Find out why the mind is like soil and how we can adopt a systems-thinking lens, which is imperative for system change.

Heather Terry – If you sit in a boardroom, you have the responsibility and obligation to visit the farm where the food is produced

30th January 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Regenerative Agriculture, Short Food Webs 0 Comments

A conversation with Heather Terry, CEO and founder of GoodSam Foods, about how an exit from a chocolate company led to a female-led consumer goods company, how education of consumers is key, networks vs. chains, multi-crop buying, and much more.

Every CEO and high-ranking manager working in food companies should be obligated to visit the farms and farmers they source from. So many decisions in the board rooms would be taken differently.

With Heather we dig into a story of a company about how an exit in a chocolate company led to a female led consumer good company focussing on chocolate, coffee, nuts and dried fruits. Preferably sourced from the same farmers paying them 2 to 3 times as much, marketed and sold throughout the US in Whole Foods and online and only being 2 years old. How is that possible? And why, according to Heather, is this the only way forward?

Martin Reiter – Why regen hasn’t produced Steve Jobs yet and how to build a modern Nestlé

23rd January 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Investor Stories, Regenerative Agriculture, Short Food Webs, Transition finance 2 Comments

A conversation with Martin Reiter, former senior manager at Airbnb and Wayfair, and prior to this at McKinsey and Groupon, about what excites him about regeneration, where are the Steve Jobs and Elon Musk of regenerative agriculture going to build companies, and how can we help more talent flow into the space?

REGENERATIVE MIND – Emma Chow and Jessica Hutchings – Connecting soil with the stars

19th January 2024 koenvanseijen Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture, Regenerative Mind, Short Food Webs 0 Comments

A conversation with Jessica Hutchings, a Maori researcher and apothecary, about indigenous knowledge, letting go of old mindsets, our relationship with nature and the deities of our landscapes. A deep dive in the New Zealand food system, indigenous ways to connect with soil and the food web, sound of plants, vibration of nature and much more.

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!

Jan-Gisbert Schultze – How a VC investor got bitten by the regeneration bug and went via Joel Salatin, Gabe Brown and Ernst Gotsch deep into syntropic agroforestry

21st November 2023 koenvanseijen Regenerative Agriculture, Transition finance 1 Comment

A conversation with Jan-Gisbert Schultze, a VC investor who turned into a regenerative enthusiast and bought a small olive farm, which he is turning into the first syntropic farm in Salento, in Puglia (Italy), a region battered by monoculture olive trees.

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.

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

14th November 2023 koenvanseijen Ecosystem Services Payments, Regenerative Agriculture, Transition finance 1 Comment

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.

Tina Owens – Only 1% of nutrition data is tracked on food labels and that means lots of opportunities for companies

3rd October 2023 koenvanseijen Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrient Density in Food, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Tina Owens, regenerative agriculture consultant and part of the Nutrient Density Alliance (for Regenerative Agriculture), about the state of the nutrient density space, the research, why life cycle assessments are broken and a lot more.