Category: Farmers First Tech

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 Ecosystem Services Payments, Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 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?

Cindie Christiansen and Analisa Winther – How a first-time non-profit raised almost €1 million to put 50 top regen farmers in the spotlight

12th November 2024 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Cindie Christiansen and Analisa Winther, founder of Top 50 Farmers, about the narrative around farmers and how it has to change. Less than 12% of farmers in the EU are under 40, and it isn’t seen as “sexy.” The stereotype of a 60-year-old white man on a tractor isn’t helping, and no, driverless tractors are not going to take care of our farming anytime soon. So how do we change that? One way is to put the current trailblazers, the pioneering regenerative farmers, in the spotlight by connecting them with resources and with each other, and yes, even with corporations, to turn this into a real movement and to change the public narrative.

Farming can be at least as sexy— probably more so— as being a chef. Do you remember when chefs weren’t famous and didn’t have book deals or Netflix series? That has drastically changed in the last few decades. We need to do the same with farming and farmers. Great, lofty goals—but how do you go about it? How do you finance something like this? Stay true to yourself and make sure you don’t burn out, which wouldn’t be very regenerative. All things we unpack in this episode.

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

8th October 2024 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 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.

Matthijs Westerwoudt – Paying farmers for cultivating weeds and making biodiversity super tasty by selling drinks and teas made from native plants

27th August 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Farmers First Tech, Nutrient Dense Food, Regenerative Agriculture 2 Comments

Matthijs Westerwoudt is the co-founder of Wilder Land, a company transforming native plants, often considered weeds, into highly desirable products. These plants, once dismissed as unwanted, are now being used to create delicious drinks, herbal teas, kombuchas, fermented teas, and even pasta. The company pays farmers more per square meter than they would earn from any other crop. How do they achieve this? First, by ensuring that these products taste as good as, or even better than, those made from monoculture crops. Second, through exceptional branding—highlighting the appeal of “nature-restoring” drinks over the concept of “biodiversity-restoring” beverages. The secret to success lies in continuous testing and refinement. In short, they are making biodiversity not just important, but incredibly tasty.

In the Netherlands, many things are well-organized, but the country also holds the unfortunate title of being a world leader in biodiversity loss. This raises the question: how can farmers be compensated for the extra biodiversity they create or support? While the idea of biodiversity credits might come to mind, these are difficult to measure and not yet fully developed. Wilder Land found a different solution for it.

Willem Ferwerda – Kickstarted the restoration industry with Commonland 11 years ago, now finally big money shows interest, but we need billions 

13th August 2024 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Landscape Design 2.0, Regenerative Agriculture, Transition finance 2 Comments

A conversation with Willem Ferwerda, one of the founders of the regeneration space, which barely existed 11 years ago when he started Commonland. How and why is it so fundamental to take a landscape view and get all the stakeholders to look at a map- yes, a physically printed large map- together? Because chances are they never have done that. The farmers, the real estate developers, the nature conversation professionals, the local politicians spent most of their time in their own silos and if they talk to each other often it isn’t very friendly.

How do you get them to develop a shared vision of what they want their landscape to look like in 20 or 30 years? How do you trigger that kind of inspiration? Nobody likes to live in a dying landscape where biodiversity has left, where people have left or are leaving, schools are closing, and shops as well.

We are at the beginning of what was barely a space 11 years ago, of course holistic landscape management existed in indigenous circles and ecology silos, but barely outside of that. And now we see the financial space starting to dip its toe into this and we will need them, as we talk billions of real green infrastructures, not hard infrastructure made of concrete, but soft, healthy spongy soils, thriving ecosystems, beneficial keystone species including people coming back to the countryside and managing landscapes holistically.

Felipe Pasini – Walking the land of Amadeco Syntropic Farm with a regenerative farmer

30th July 2024 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture, Walking the Land with a Regenerative Farmer 0 Comments

What if you could turn a dry, water-scarce plot of land into a thriving ecosystem? In this new episode of Walking the Land with a Regenerative Farmer we follow the journey of Felipe Pasini, as we explore his transformative work on the Amadeco Syntropic farm in Depressa, Salento, Puglia. Felipe reveals how he tackled the challenges of traditional dry stone walls, rocky soil, and limited water supply to create a productive, visually stunning farm organized into innovative elements.

Jason Hayward-Jones – Corporates paying for low carbon grains and why virtual twins are key in gaming and Scottish whiskey

25th June 2024 koenvanseijen AI 4 Soil Health, Ecosystem Services Payments, Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A check-in interview with Jason Hayward-Jones, founder & director at REGENFARM Ltd., and Sustainable Agriculture Specialist at Cefetra, about why corporations are suddenly paying for low-carbon grain, what it has to do with virtual digital twins, why that is such a potentially disruptive technology and, finally, why it is connected with gaming and Scottish whisky.

Bridget Emmett – Moving over carbon soil compaction is the real issue in agriculture

21st June 2024 koenvanseijen AI 4 Soil Health, Farmers First Tech, Landscape Design 2.0, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Bridget Emmett, British ecologist, Professor and Science Area Head for the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, about the EU Mission Soil, what is the role of technology, remote sensing, digital twins, etc, and what role should and could policy play.

Kat Bruce – Going from putting insects in a food processor to raising $27M in 10 years and building the biggest eDNA biodiversity monitoring company

14th June 2024 koenvanseijen Ecosystem Services Payments, Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Kat Bruce, founder of Nature Metrics , going from scooping insects with a small net and putting them in a food processor, to analysing the goo with an eDNA machine, to working with lots of large food corporations on measuring their biodiversity, food footprint, and impact.

How do you look back at raising 27 million dollars and spending 10 years building the biggest biodiversity measurement company using eDNA in a time where very few people care at all about biodiversity, let alone invest in measuring it. How do we analyse water at a catchment area to see what lives in that area? How about soil measurements for DNA at scale, and what about air sniffing and analysing? And why are the corporations only coming in in the last few years? Where are people moving, and what is still missing?

Scott Poynton – Crises drive change: stories from within the transformation of Nestlé’s palm oil value chain

4th June 2024 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Landscape Design 2.0, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Scott Poynton, founder of the Forest Trust, now known as the Earthworm Foundation, about supply chains, environmental regeneration and addressing environmental scandals from the forests of rural Australia to his groundbreaking work with major corporations like Nestlé on no-deforestation commitments. Scott’s experiences in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, Tasmania, and reforestation projects reveal the intricate balance between economic growth and environmental conservation.

Do you remember a few years ago Greenpeace released a video with a kitkat chocolate with an orangutan’ finger in it, which very clearly made the statement that much of the palm oil the Nestlé owned company were coming from deforested plots in Indonesia which were home to the orangutans? And before that, the scandal on teak garden furniture, which in the nineties suddenly a lot of European household had teak garden furniture on their balconies or on their terraces? A lot of that wood came from illegal logging in Cambodja smuggled over the borders by members of the Red Khmer and sold to furniture companies in Vietnam.

What do you do as a company when you are hit by a supply chain scandal like this? In both of these cases, the companies called Scott to help fix it. Not their public image, but the actual supply chain. Get traceability in, no deforestation rules and monitoring, social programmes, etc. Learn from the fascinating journey of this forester born in Australia who founded the Forest Trust. It’s regeneration, both socially, economically, and environmentally at scale, and learn why he is so excited about biochar.