An overdue check-in conversation with Dan Barber,  chef, co-owner of Blue Hill restaurants and co-founder of Row 7 Seeds, where we dive into the fascinating world of seeds and how breeding is evolving with the explosion of AI and other technologies. No, we don’t need GMOs, CRISPR, or other risky blunt instruments. We discuss the implosion of the fake meat hype, which was at its peak when we last spoke four years ago, why insane umami flavor and potentially self-nitrogen-fixing tomatoes are revolutionary. This is a deep conversation about bread and wheat—and why breeding wheat specifically for whole meal flour is so important, where Row 7 Seeds, his seed company, is headed and why they’re launching a CPG brand using pressure-cooked vegetables (because processing isn’t a dirty word).

When your vegetables come from incredible seeds and are grown in healthy soils, you don’t need unhealthy additives. We kick things off with mouthwatering winter spinach and dive into a long conversation about the role of technology in food and agriculture. No, we shouldn’t go back to the past. No, we’re not Luddites. In fact, Dan is incredibly bullish on the role of AI in natural breeding—perhaps the best of both worlds, enabling faster breeding for local conditions rather than global crops that lack flavor, nutrients, and rely on excessive chemicals.

Get ready for a firehose of stories on food, seeds, soil, and culture!

THE HOLY GRAIL FOR PLANTS AND SEED BREEDING ARE PLANTS THAT FIX THEIR OWN NITROGEN

Dan discusses the importance of nitrogen fixation in plants, emphasizing that the ability for plants to fix their own nitrogen is a game-changer for sustainable agriculture. This would reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers, which are harmful to the environment.

“The Holy Grail is to create plants that fix their own nitrogen. That’s wild, and we know that is possible because look outside your window and look at weeds, look at plants—they have the capacity to fix their own nitrogen.” Dan Barber

WHY IT ALL STARTS WITH SEEDS

The foundation of a sustainable food system lies in the seeds. It is crucial to select seeds that are adapted to specific environments, which can lead to better flavour, nutrition, and resilience.

“First the seed, that’s the expression, first the seed. I have come to understand that since we last talked in 2021. […] But in order to do that effectively, we really need to breed for it. We need to select for it. We need the right seed.” Dan Barber

WHY AI-POWERED NATURAL BREEDING WILL MAKE GENE EDITING, GMOS, AND CRISPR OBSOLETE

AI-powered natural breeding can accelerate the selection of desirable traits in plants, making gene editing and GMOs less relevant. Dan believes that AI can help identify parent lines with the right genetic traits much faster than traditional methods.

“What AI presents for us, I think, is an opportunity to do this kind of thing much faster. That’s exciting… AI can find them, […] What I feel on, but I’m not a Luddite, I’m not anti-technology, and I will prove that to you, Koen, by saying I see AI as one of the answers to the tall order of our environmental challenges that we have in front of us, our health challenges that we have in front of us, and a technology that actually could be utilised in service of biology.” Dan Barber

THE POTENTIAL OF GROWING WHEAT FOR WHOLE MEAL PROCESSING

Whole flour retains more nutrients and flavour compared to refined white flour. This is a revolution in the way we think about wheat and bread.

“What I’m holding here is actually a revolution. And it’s not what our great-grandparents were baking… It’s a wheat that is bred for 100 percent whole wheat and nutrition. That’s a revolution.” Dan Barber

OTHER POINTS DISCUSSED

Koen and Dan also talked about:

• The amazing tomatoes grown
• The issues with modern grain and flour and bread
• Why we shouldn’t back to the past but go forward while betting on biology

LINKS:

• Blue Hill
• Chef Dan Barber on Instagram
• Row 7 Seed Company
• The Third Plate Book 

LINKED INTERVIEWS:

• Dan Barber, great flavour, health benefits and healthy ecosystems can only come from healthy soils not a lab
• Nicolas Enjalbert – Let’s disrupt the oligopoly seeds industry, currently bad for everyone, people, planet and flavour
• Erwin Westers – Supermarkets didn’t care about his quality so he focussed on selling seeds to other regenerative farmers
• Franco Fubini – Delivering unmatched flavour to 2000 of the world’s top restaurant and unlocking consumer demand
• Adrien Pelletier – Why all farmers or most farmers need to become seed breeders again

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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.