Policy and Legislation – Investing in regenerative agriculture

What we learned in 2025 about making regen bankable, animals, water, chefs, scale, Al in ag, agroforestry, education, food as medicine, ROl, storytelling

26th December 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

If 2025 had a soundtrack, it would be the sound of stress: stress in the system, stress in humans, stress in animals and in all other non human beings.

And then the cycle of Heat. Drought. Fire. Flood. Over and over again.
And yet, between the headlines, something else seems happening. We spent the year in conversation—with farmers walking their fields, scientists questioning old assumptions, investors rethinking risk, and builders experimenting in the real world. Online and offline, we found ourselves in rooms where regeneration wasn’t an abstract ideal, but really happening.

As 2025 comes to a close, it’s hard not to feel cautiously optimistic. The signals are there. Regeneration works and the direction is becoming clearer.

Simon Kraemer – The €120k study showing regenerative agriculture can feed the world

25th November 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

How do we feed the world? It’s all nice and cute this regenerative agriculture and food stuff, but how do we actually feed the world? By 2050, we’ll need to produce double the amount of food. This is a question you, like me, get a lot, we bet, from banks, pension funds, large institutional players, investors in general, entrepreneurs, and eco-modernists.

Our go-to answer was always: go to the most pioneering farmers and see what they can produce. But the counterargument was always: “Show me the research!”. Now we have the research.

In this Walking the Land episode, recorded straight from one of the most advanced farms in Europe, we talk to Simon, Kraemer, executive director of the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA) and the lead author of a revolutionary study where they looked at 78 of the most pioneering farms in Europe and compared them to their conventional neighbours. They analyse everything from fertiliser use, finances, and pesticides to the holiest of grails: photosynthesis. And guess what? Regenerative outperformed conventional in almost everything. Similar or higher yields, more than 75% reduction in NPKs, significantly reduced chemical use and, best of all, over the seven years they compared them, the regenerative farms kept getting better and better. Imagine what that looks like after 15 years! And imagine applying all that knowledge to new farms or new fields. There’s an S-curve and exponential growth in regeneration when you look at photosynthesis on regenerative fields.

So how did this study land in the agri-food world in Europe? What about the large food companies, and policymakers in Brussels who decide about the biggest pot of agricultural subsidies in the world: the €400 billion CAP, renewed every five years?

Anand Ethirajalu – Harvesting the clouds: how to transition over 10,000 farmers a year, reducing input costs and increasing profits

1st July 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Anand Ethirajalu, farmer-turned-ecologist and project director for the Save Soil movement, on groundwork.

We don’t talk about it much, but we should: a remarkable transition has been unfolding on the Indian subcontinent over the past few decades. Hundreds of thousands- if not millions- of farmers have been trained in regenerative practices and have successfully made the switch. Yes, with higher yields and greater profits, largely due to significantly lower production costs.

In the conversation, we focus on one region where the Save Soil movement, led by Sadhguru (yes, the same man who rode his motorcycle around the world to raise awareness about the importance of soil), has been training farmers. More than 10,000 farmers per year have participated in these programs for decades.

There are countless lessons to be learned. Soil can recover quickly, but shifting farmers’ mindsets often takes much longer. One key strategy: don’t risk the whole farm. Start with just 10%, and show immediate financial results—higher profits. Provide crucial support in the early years, especially during the first growing season.

Farmers are now connected through WhatsApp groups, where they can receive expert advice for pest or disease issues within 24 to 48 hours—always with solutions they can prepare themselves, without relying on expensive toxic inputs.

More and more farmers are also joining programs to plant permanent crops like timber and fruit trees, both as a form of insurance and with the broader goal of planting enough trees (currently over 12 million a year) to begin “harvesting the clouds”. Yes, this is part of restoring the small water cycle.

We also take a look at the political landscape, as the Indian government has made natural farming a national goal for the coming decades. This is likely a global first. While it will require a tremendous amount of work to implement effectively, and while there will be pushback from the agri-input industry and, of course, government policy will never be perfect, this is still a massive milestone worth celebrating.

Kiira Heymann – From Non-GMO to Non-ultra-processed: everyone has the right to know what’s in their food

18th March 2025 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Kiira Heymann, Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Non-GMO Project and the Food Integrity Collective. After the success of the Non-GMO Project in the U.S., which is now featured on almost 63,000 products, the team is launching the Non-Ultra-Processed Food verification. In this conversation, we discuss why—why introduce another label? And why is it so important for the food sector to focus on increasing consumers’ capacity to demand more from their food system, rather than just adding another label?

This isn’t just another label—it’s a carefully considered intervention designed to reconnect people with their food in profound ways. When 70% of American store shelves hold ultra-processed products engineered with ingredients banned in other countries, the stakes couldn’t be higher. What makes this effort particularly fascinating is how it challenges the very foundation of food certification itself. Rather than creating another “shortcut to trust”, the team is exploring how to eliminate the need for certifications entirely by rebuilding true transparency in our food system. Their research shows 81% of North Americans are concerned about questionable ingredients in their food, yet only 17% feel knowledgeable about the topic—a gap this initiative aims to close.

Beyond ingredients, this movement addresses the cognitive impact of ultra-processed foods. Studies show these products can significantly impair brain function in as little as 30 days, creating a troubling cycle where the very foods engineered to be addictive are simultaneously diminishing our capacity to make better choices. By helping consumers understand and avoid ultra-processed foods, the certification offers a pathway toward better physical and mental wellbeing.

Currently in its pilot phase with 20 pioneering brands, the non-UPFs verification program aims to launch products by fall 2025. The certification represents more than just another shopping guide—it’s an invitation to experience the profound difference real food makes in how we feel, think, and connect with our world.

Jojo Mehta – Making ecocide a crime in less than 5 years and for less than 6 million dollars

23rd April 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Jojo Mehta, executive director of Stop Ecocide International, about making ecocide a crime, something you can get arrested for and end up in prison. How do we get it from a discussion in lawyer circles and academic circles into international criminal law? And why is it going much faster over the last 5 years than anyone has expected?

Law: an area we rarely touch but has the potential to shift our food and agriculture system, and many other systems, completely. Making ecocide a crime. Ecocide is broadly understood to mean mass damage and destruction of ecosystems – severe harm to nature which is widespread or long-term. Turning ecocide into a crime, most likely it would also over time change our consciousness and get ecocide into the realm of things you simply don’t do. What is even more fascinating is that large companies actually want this, so it creates a level playing field.

Mateusz Ciasnocha and Maria Virginia Solis Wahnish – From EU Soil Mission to Pope Francis, how to change local and state agriculture and food policies

16th April 2024 koenvanseijen 1 Comment

A conversation with Maria Virginia Solis Wahnish and Mateusz Ciasnocha, both involved with the Farm of Francesco. Maria Virginia is founder of Drink Matera, while Mateusz is CEO of the European Carbon Farmers, and member of the EU Soil Mission board. We discuss why it is so important to connect with policymakers and how to actually do that, the importance of farmers’ education and a very detailed answer to the 1 billion euro question to enable many more people to get involved in farming. And what has Pope Francis to do with all of this?

Sam Kass – Get people access to carrots before talking about nutrient density, former Obama’s chef and nutrition advisor turned investor says

17th October 2023 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Sam Kass, former White House Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition of the Obama’s administration and partner at Acre VC. We talk about the potential of VC in the space, the challenges of the real world and why we should focus on getting everyone access to carrots before focusing on the quality and growing practices, why carbon payments is a very interesting and real entry point to scale, and more.

Millán Millán – Farm water at its proper scale

28th July 2023 koenvanseijen 1 Comment

A conversation with Dr Millán Millán, director of the Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo (CEAM),about restoring the small water cycle, why the summer storms and rains have disappeared and how this turned out to be connected to massive snows in the UK, and massive floods in Central Europe and much more.

Karen Rodriguez and Ethan Soloviev – Should we be worried about the big brands and massive food companies getting active in the regenerative movement?

13th June 2023 koenvanseijen 3 Comments

A conversation with Karen Rodriguez, chief operation officer of Kiss the Ground, and Ethan Soloviev, chief innovation officer at HowGood, about how they joined forces to update the Regenerative Agriculture Industry Map, whether we should celebrate the big brands and massive food companies moving into the space, and what makes these two veterans of the regenerative movement cautiously optimistic.

Marta Cortegano – How to start the regenerative revolution from one of the driest places in Europe

2nd May 2023 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Marta Cortegano, cofounder of Terra Sintrópica and one of the leaders of the regenerative agriculture movement in Portugal. Straight from one of the driest and emptiest places in Europe where climate change is hitting hard, we talked about farming in challenging conditions, syntropic agroforestry and more.

Category: Policy and Legislation