Farmers First Tech – Investing in regenerative agriculture

Ethan Soloviev – AI, good food at Davos, food as medicine and regen taking off

8th April 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A check- in conversation with Ethan Soloviev, Chief Innovation Officer at HowGood, about how regenerative agriculture is truly taking off, its position within large food and agriculture companies, and whether we risk watering it down or falling into greenwashing (Spoiler: Surprisingly, we’re doing a lot about it!). We also get an update on HowGood—they’re doing well and focusing more on nutrient density-, plus, we talk about Regen House, which is revolutionizing the way good food fosters meaningful conversations at major events like COPs, climate summits, and Davos, t bringing farmers, indigenous community members, and global executives together around regenerative food experiences. By centering conversations on actual good food rather than panels and PowerPoints, these gatherings forge authentic connections that move regeneration forward.

And, of course, no conversation with Ethan would be complete without diving into AI—what currently does and what it could do for regeneration—not just through efficiency gains, but through innovative applications like predicting deforestation before it happens. The real breakthrough will come when we develop “large ecological models” trained on nature’s patterns rather than just human texts, enabling truly regenerative landscape design.

As Chief Innovation Officer at HowGood, Ethan offers a glimpse into how sustainability data is transforming food systems. Their database tracks environmental and social impacts for 33,000 ingredients and nearly 4 million products globally, enabling everything from carbon footprinting to supplier engagement. What’s particularly encouraging is how this data influences consumer behavior—when sustainability information is presented clearly at the point of purchase, sales of sustainable products consistently increase across diverse markets.

Louis De Jaeger – Eat More Trees: a Masterclass with thé storyteller of the Regen Space

1st April 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Louis De Jaeger, international keynote speaker, author, award-winning filmmaker, and landscape designer, about dreams, action, and storytelling—how to reach and touch people. We discuss why storytelling is highly underrated and underfunded, and why he is organizing a festival—not the next Burning Man, but a regeneration festival.
He shares his excitement about small water cycle restoration, the biotic pump, and much more. And in the end, it all boils down to one simple message: Eat More Trees.

During his 5-year sabbatical that turned into a lifelong mission to regenerate landscapes, Louis’ revelation came during world travels where he witnessed environmental degradation firsthand—monoculture landscapes so depressing “you want to drive against a tree, but there are no trees.” This observation sparked his mission to regenerate 550 million hectares of land globally, potentially cooling our planet by two degrees Celsius.

Beyond the environmental benefits, Louis paints a compelling vision of a regenerative future characterized by abundance rather than sacrifice. “We’re going to have an even more luxurious lifestyle, we’re going to have better food that tastes fantastic” he assures us. His approach isn’t about shaming people into environmentalism but showing how regenerative practices create healthier, more desirable lives.

Laimonas Noreika – From FinTech to Farms: bridging the €60B loan gap for Europe’s small farms

25th March 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Laimonas Noreika, founder of HeavyFinance, about providing loans to farmers, bringing innovation to the traditionally stagnant agri-loan sector. Regen ag is more profitable—Laimonas has the data to prove it and is putting serious money to work to scale regen across Eastern Europe.

Some numbers: over €70M loaned to farmers and over 13,000 individual investors have invested through them. But the gap is much bigger—over €60B a year—which means we need institutional investors. Some, like the European Investment Fund, have invested through Heavy Finance. And why aren’t banks stepping in? Because small farmers don’t fit their criteria well. So, we need new fintech solutions and scale. This could be quite a standard fintech play in agriculture if it weren’t for a super clear focus on regenerative practices. Why? Because it’s more profitable and thus makes farmers better lenders.

And yes, we’re also talking about carbon credits—Laimonas is placing big bets in that space, and we explore why and how.

Dimitri Tsitos – Making regenerative intensive tree crops profitable

11th March 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A deep dive into the world of intensive—or super-intensive—tree crops, particularly olives and almonds with Dimitri Tsitos, co-founder of Agrosystemic, the Regenerative Agroforestry Podcast, the Arbo-Innova project and Mazi Farm. In Portugal, the sector is booming—highly profitable yet highly destructive—due to its high- input, high-output nature, with heavy reliance on fertilizers and chemicals.

This raises the question: can there be another way? That’s exactly what Dimitri and his team have been researching over the past few years—on real farms, running large-scale regenerative plots alongside conventional ones. The bad news? It’s not easy. It demands a systematic shift in machinery, protocols, and inputs. But the good news is the results are extremely promising: much higher quality olive oil, only a slight drop in production, significantly better price points, lower costs from day one, and biodiversity that bounces back remarkably fast.

It’s a booming industry that, like CAFO factory farms for animal protein, is reaching its limits in terms of public acceptance, climate risks, biodiversity loss, quality concerns, and rising input costs. But don’t despair—this is a hopeful discussion. There’s plenty of low-hanging fruit (pun intended) ready to be rolled out quickly, following an initial phase of research and development.

Tom Hengl – We should reward the stewards of the land like we celebrate Olympic champions

4th March 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A long-overdue check-in conversation with Tom Hengl, director at OpenGeoHub and one of the leading scientists in earth observation and remote sensing—one of the most cited in his field, belonging to the top 0.1% (based on Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers). We discuss the significant changes in the world of remote sensing, satellites, and the hype surrounding AI, machine learning, and large language models over the past three years. While the hype has brought some interesting advancements, it also distracts people from the real work that needs to be done.

We delve into the AI4SoilHealth European project we are part of, discussing how we can already monitor and observe most places on Earth from the sky at a resolution of 30 by 30 meters. Importantly, we can now look back nearly 25 years for almost all locations in Europe and analyse changes on a field-by-field basis. While we might not know the individual farmers, we can identify their fields, and we can train models to make predictions and provide actionable, relevant advice.
We explore the idea of celebrating farmers and land stewards who have successfully regenerated their plots of land over the past decades. But how do we shift a culture that celebrates sports over regenerative farming? Finally, we touch on the challenges holding back some of this work, including the need for reliable and affordable in situ in-field soil health analysis.

Antonio Nobre – If nature were a bank it would have been saved already

3rd January 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Antonio Nobre, Brazilian agronomist by training and world’s leading Earth scientist, serving as the scientific director of the Biotic Pump Greening Group. He has dedicated his career to studying the Amazon’s ecological dynamics and its crucial role in climate regulation and is an expert on water cycles, native Indigenous knowledge, and much more.

We talk about how Antonio found his way to the Amazon after being born and raised in São Paulo, how he rebelled against the Green Revolution during his time at agricultural university, and how he discovered the incredible workings of forests—especially rainforests.
We also explore the overview effect—the transformative experience of seeing Earth from space—and how it often turns astronauts into environmental activists.

What we learned in 2024 about ecocide, land access crisis, regenerative education, return of inspiration, chefs, machinery and brands driving change

27th December 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

As we wrap up 2024, we reflect on a year that brought hope but also served as a wake-up call. With skyrocketing temperatures, droughts, fires, and floods, the challenges have been immense. But we were very lucky that we—both online and offline— had the chance to come together with many of the pioneers and builders in regenerative agriculture and food. At the same time, we were reminded that we, as part of nature, are at war with extractive forces.

Our takeaways on ambitious entrepreneurs, the many elephants in the room, role and legacy of farmers, innovation in water cycle restoration, money money money, building new industries. Many deep dives in soil health, starting with chefs, consumer brands driving change and educating consumers, walking the land with regenerative farmers, legends, role of AI and tools. And, finally, some milestones and highlights.

Jacob Parnell – Move over chemicals, biological inputs work and we can provide farmers with accurate advice

20th December 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A deep dive with Jacob Parnell, director of Agronomy at Biome Makers, into the evolving world of soil biology and biological inputs. Soil biology is the answer—no matter the question. While this may sound black-and-white, it is safe to say that soil biology holds the potential to resolve many global issues. So, where do we currently stand with soil biology research, and, more importantly, what does it mean practically for farmers? Many farmers are eager to transition away from heavy chemical inputs to biological alternatives. But, how do you know which ones work in your context?

Jacob discusses how the “black box” of biological inputs has disappeared in recent years. We now have enough trails and data to say to a farmer after done a soil biology test, this range of biological inputs will likely—up to 80% of the time—work well in your soils, providing specific, beneficial effects. This shift is revolutionary not only for farmers but also for the manufacturers of these products, who have historically marketed their products to work everywhere ( which obviously disappointed many farmers when they tried and product X didn’t perform). Now, companies can say “please don’t buy this product which likely won’t work in your context; try this one instead”.

Ali Bin Shahid, one of the few who can model and calculate water cycle restoration

17th December 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Ali Bin Shahid, an engineer with a deep background in permaculture (and a military one too), a passion for modelling and one of the very few people using data and engineering approaches to tackle critical questions about regeneration. We explore how to put numbers to abstract ideas like slowing water down, spreading it, and soaking it. What does “slow” actually mean? How do we measure it—by kilometres per hour, or some other metric? How much regeneration is required to restore rivers or trigger rains in a given landscape? And, for example, where globally do we have the biggest potential? Where is the biggest gap between the forest and water potential and the current situation on the ground?

It’s definitely possible to manage a few acres or a few hectares through observation, if you’re there for many decades or even through different generations. But as soon as we start talking about regeneration at the landscape level, we need numbers. We need numbers and models. Surprisingly, a lot is already possible: we can calculate to a relatively detailed degree, what certain flows of air, water, and moisture will look like in a landscape. This means you can start to calculate and imagine, almost at a parcel level, where we need to regenerate in order to restore, for instance, summer rains and year-round rivers.

The surprising part is how few people are doing this work. Ali is trying to quantify these ideas: how much water to slow, where the global potential lies, and the vast gaps between current conditions and what’s achievable.

Kevin Wolz – Starting an agroforestry industry in the belly of the beast, the soy and corn monoculture heartland of the US Midwest

19th November 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Kevin Wolz, CEO of Canopy Farm Management and former founder of the Savanna Institute. Canopy provides tree planting and management services to farmers and landowners in the US Midwest. They establish perennial crops, timber plantings, conservation practices, and integrated agroforestry systems.

We have been talking about agroforestry systems and investing before (see link at the bottom of this page!): trees were the answer to whatever your question was. But how do you start an agroforestry industry right in the middle of the belly of the beast, the American Midwest, where corn and soy are everywhere, leases are 1 to 3 years, and there are no trees as far as the eye can see? And especially here, trees are needed, not as magical carbon sequestration tools but as climate adaptation, against erosion, wind breaks, to protect animals and crops, nutrient leaking into streams, and, of course, to produce a lot of food integrated into the fields. What does it take to build an agroforestry industry here? What about finance, equipment, planting, seedlings, tree nursery, harvesting, markets, and much more?

Category: Farmers First Tech