Antonella – Page 8 – Investing in regenerative agriculture

Jesús Areso Salinas – Building towers to trigger rain, to help nature sweat and cool

29th October 2024 koenvanseijen 1 Comment

A conversation with Jesús Areso Salinas, retired from work as patent examiner at the European Patent Office and now active with his project to fight climate change combining water, katabatic tower and moisture. Another record-breaking summer in the global north, where temperature records were shattered repeatedly, prompts us to ask: is there a sustainable future for places like the Mediterranean? Jesús wondered how does nature cool? and, crucially, could we help nature kickstart the cooling of ambient air?”

Imagine cooling our surroundings during a heatwave—cooling town squares, vegetable gardens, or farms on a small scale. What if, over time, this approach spreads, with more people cooling their surroundings, allowing plants and trees to continue growing through the summer and helping to cool the air? Could this restoration of local cooling contribute to rebalancing water cycles, bringing back summer rains, and even creating a lasting cooling effect? These are big, almost magical questions, and they are exactly why we tackle them here with Jesús, an engineer turned permaculture expert, who is now building towers to help nature “sweat” and cool.

Sure, we could retreat to air-conditioned spaces, but air conditioners only worsen the problem by using energy to move heat from inside to outside without solving anything at its core. And what about plants, trees, and animals? They need a humid, comfortable environment to thrive, yet during hot, dry summers, they’re focused on survival rather than growth—or the cooling process essential to their function. Mediterranean farmers, in particular, take note: during the peak of summer, your plants and trees often stop growing because it’s too hot and dry.

So, how does nature cool itself? Through transpiration, plants and trees release moisture, which cools the surrounding air. However, as heatwaves become stronger, it’s often too hot for them to function, meaning they can neither grow nor cool the air. This lack of cooling is a problem farmers and investors need to understand—especially those in warmer climates, where plants and trees may be unable to photosynthesize or grow for weeks. Cooling ambient air is essential, and air conditioning isn’t the answer.

Aaron Huang – How ranching (and eating) of millions of zombie sea urchins could restore the massive kelp forests of the U.S. Pacific West Coast

25th October 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Aaron Huang, founder of OoNee Sea Urchin Ranch, to dive into the world of sea urchin ranching and its connections to high-end fish restaurants, many of which fly their sea urchins in from Japan. Over the past decade, a warm water blob off the U.S. West Coast has caused sea urchins to overgraze the kelp forests, leading to a massive population boom of urchins, the collapse of kelp ecosystems, and the rise of countless “zombie” sea urchins—urchins that prevent the kelp from regrowing without dying themselves.

Why should we care? Because this phenomenon is happening everywhere—whether it’s invasive species or extreme weather events, ecosystems are collapsing, and without smart intervention, they won’t recover. In this case, the solution is to harvest the sea urchins threatening the remaining kelp, fatten them up, and sell them to the growing market for high-end seafood. What can we learn from this approach and apply to other ecosystems that are out of balance?

Edd Lees – After 23 years in finance, a new career full of life, soil, bread and a famous DJ

22nd October 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

What happens when a seasoned finance professional trades his suit for soil? In a conversation with Edd Lees, co-founder of WildFarmed, we explore what it’s like to help create one of the most renowned brands in regenerative agriculture. Inspired by his friend Andy Cato, Edd, the financial mind behind WildFarmed, embarked on a mission to revolutionize food systems, beginning with a bakery in southern France. Today, they work with over 100 farmers across 10,000 hectares in the UK, supplying regenerative flour to some of London’s best bakeries.

We explore Edd’s transition from 23 years in finance, his pragmatic approach to changing the food system (avoiding dogmatism), and his strategies for scaling the business. This includes expanding beyond their core market of artisanal bakers and finding ways to introduce their products to supermarkets. For WildFarmed, it’s all about scaling up, impacting as many hectares as possible- ultimately at a landscape level- while guiding farms on their regenerative journey, one step at a time, all while maintaining financial sustainability.

Juliette Simonin – Teaching over 400.000 consumers that a farm isn’t a screw factory while selling them 4,7m boxes of organic and regen fruit and veggies straight from the farm

15th October 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Juliette Simonin, co-founder and COO of CrowdFarming, a company that works with over 320 farmers and sells fruit and veggies boxes directly to 400.000 consumers. In this discussion, we explore how Juliette transitioned from working at a large insurance company to co-founding Europe’s largest direct-to-consumer organic fruit and vegetable platform.

How do they educate these consumers that a farm is not a screw factory, and that every fruit is different? Delivery times depend on harvests and weather. The conversation also touches on how they keep consumers engaged in the process of growing fruits, and how vital it is for farmers to know there is a growing demand for their organic produce as they make changes to their practices.

Finally, we discuss why CrowdFarming is focused on helping farmers transition toward regenerative practices. Spoiler alert: resilience is a key driver. This resilience is also why the company bootstrapped for most of its early years before eventually deciding to take on outside capital.

Yanik Nyberg – Are saltwater plants grown on tens of millions ha of abandoned, drained salt marshes going to be the livestock feed of the future?

11th October 2024 koenvanseijen 3 Comments

A conversation with Yanik Nyberg, co-founder of Nara Climate and Sea Water Solutions, about feed for aquaculture and on-land livestock, salinity—when soils get saltier. Millions of hectares of former soil marshes close to the coast have been drained over the last thousands of years and often farmed, slowly but surely because of rising seawater levels. Soil water is creeping back in, and traditional farming is getting impossible. What do we do with these millions of hectares? One way is to rewet them and grow salt-loving plants called halophytes. These plants are also great feedstock for the aquaculture industry and poultry to replace the massive negative impact of soy.

So, what is holding back the large feed companies from incorporating this novel but originally the feedstock of many fish into their mixes? Interestingly enough, most of the world’s deserts are getting saltier too. Because of extreme rain, yes, it rains in the desert every now and then, which leads to flash floods. Millions of livestock pastoralists and their animals are suffering because of drought and floods, and the salts make their grass-based pastures disappear. Could the magical salt-loving halyphoates also be grown in the desert and feed these animals?

David Brunmayr – The future of agriculture is small-scale, now let’s build the tools for it

8th October 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with David Brunmayr, co-founder of Organic Tools, where they believe the future of agriculture is small-scale, and make the machinery and tools to make that vision a reality. We discuss the enormous advantages of smaller-scale and diversified farming, that make much more ecological sense. It can be energy-positive compared to the enormous energy required to grow food on the current large, industrialised extractive mono land.

So, what is the catch? Hands and usually backbreaking work. Smaller-scale, diversified farms used to rely on a lot of labour, with villages coming together for the harvest. This is no longer possible in many places, so the natural question is: what are the machinery and tools needed to have smaller-scale, diversified farms thrive and not burn out and break their lower backs? Huge, multimillion-dollar combine harvesters and tractors are not going to work.

Franco Fubini – Delivering unmatched flavour to 2000 of the world’s top restaurant and unlocking consumer demand

1st October 2024 koenvanseijen 3 Comments

A conversation with Franco Fubini, co-founder of Natoora and author of In Search of the Perfect Peach, about flavour as the key to unlocking consumer demand. We talked about what leads to great flavour, which is of course soil health, but first, we need amazing seeds. How do we make sure farmers get paid accordingly when they grow the most amazing pumpkin or peaches? We tackled creating demand for flavour and lots of it starting with the world’s leading restaurants, and chefs who are relentlessly looking for the best flavours on their plates.

Chris Smaje – High tech manufactured food won’t save us. Spread money, people and energy more thinly instead

27th September 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Chris Smaje, farmer and author of Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future, about manufactured food not being the solution to the food, agriculture, and climate crises, despite what George Monbiot portraits in Regenesis. Why don’t we just grow food from thin air and all move to cities and have nature rewild the countryside? If this sounds dystopian to you, this conversation is perfect for you. We unpack the many issues with that worldview and how it most likely creates more problems than it solves. There are huge technical challenges with this kind of manufactured food, like energy costs and health. But this is about much more; this is also about the concentration of people, capital, and power in cities and the rural-urban divide.

Stefania Avanzini – Why and how 26 food giants with a turn over of $900 billion are getting serious about regeneration and biodiversity

24th September 2024 koenvanseijen 2 Comments

A conversation with Stefania Avanzini, director of One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B), about working hard to create alternative vertically integrated, farmed-owned food companies and transforming the current giants. Because, whether we like it or not, most of the food we buy in supermarkets comes from these companies. These companies are finally feeling the pain from climate weirding in their supply chains. So, what are they doing about it, and why did 26 of them join the coalition of businesses for biodiversity?

How does a coalition with companies with a total turnover of over 900 billion dollars work on changing the food system? These are the whales of the food system, not the small fishes, and with all their issues and challenges, they are fundamental to the future of our food system.

Frederik Lean Hansen – Small individual farms are probably not the future of farming in Europe

17th September 2024 koenvanseijen 1 Comment

A wide-ranging conversation with Frederik Lean Hansen, a regenerative farm business consultant who spent a year traveling and working on 12 farms alongside regenerative farmers across Europe. He is currently active as a Farm Finance genitor and is now starting his own silvopastured poultry enterprise on his parents’ farm in Denmark. We discuss topics such as finance, CapEx, OpEx, income statements, and cash flow, as well as the myth of small-scale farming and whether economies of scale truly matter. Fred shares insights on how farmers can organize together to access better markets, run more financially successful businesses, and improve their quality of life. We also delve into the importance of inner work, which is often neglected in our sector—or any sector, for that matter.