Category: Role of corporations

Philipp Stangl – Why an award winning hybrid blended regen meat company decided to exit before becoming a ‘unicorn’

6th December 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Nutrient Dense Food, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of corporations 0 Comments

A check-in conversation with Philipp Stangl, co-founder of Rebel Meat (now Rebel Kids), a company we featured earlier working on hybrid blended meat. The story isn’t over, but definitely didn’t develop as we discussed more than 3 years ago.

Let’s all talk much more about changed plans and pivots and companies not being overnight unicorn successes. The founders of companies, in general, have to be very optimistic and visionary people. They need to convince people to join their crazy ideas and people to partner with them and invest in their vision. But things don’t always go as planned; actually, usually they don’t go as planned. But we hardly talk about that. We as society mostly cover the beginning of a story where everything still seems possible or the end where exits or big successes happen.

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

22nd October 2024 koenvanseijen Regenerative Agriculture, Role of corporations, Short Food Webs, Transition finance 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.

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 Regenerative Agriculture, Role of corporations 1 Comment

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.

Jay Albany – Despite the graveyard of D2C companies, it can actually work in the world’s most remote city

19th July 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of corporations 0 Comments

A conversation with Jay Albany, CEO of Dirty Clean Food, about what it takes to build a successful direct-to-consumer business- basically buying from regen farmers and delivering to consumer, restaurants, etc.- in the regen space and in the most remote city on the planet. Despite all challenges of B2C, Jay makes a passionate case for the contrary. A deep dive full of golden nuggets of direct-to-consumer companies, what works and what doesn’t, but also a long conversation on the power of transparency within businesses and the most important return of all, inspiration.

What are the lessons learned? Looking at the graveyard of direct-to-consumer companies we have seen, especially in COVID years, raising a lot of money, struggling, or shutting down. Does that mean disrupting the current supermarket oligopolies isn’t worth it?

What we learned in 2023 about cooling the planet, food as medicine, regenerative renaissance, indigenous knowledge and decommodification

27th December 2023 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Ecosystem Services Payments, Farmers First Tech, Farmers' Philosophy, Nutrient Dense Food, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of Animals, Role of corporations, Short Food Webs, Transition finance 0 Comments

As we are wrapping up 2023 we look back at a year which feels even crazier than 2022. Another war has started and we have been flooded literally with extreme weather events. Every month seems to have been the warmest, driest, wettest etc. in history! Let’s look at what we covered and learned in the podcast!

Rose Marcario – From growing Patagonia to $1b in sales to making early stage regen tech investments

27th September 2022 koenvanseijen Beyond Food, Farmers First Tech, Investor Stories, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of corporations 1 Comment

A conversation with Rose Marcario, former president and CEO of Patagonia and current founding partner of ReGen Ventures, about moving from an organic food company to joining an early-stage VC fund focused on regenerative technologies.

Pierre Rousseau on how large banks finance the regeneration transition

10th August 2021 koenvanseijen Ecosystem Services Payments, Landscape Design 2.0, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of corporations, Transition finance 0 Comments

Pierre Rousseau, the Senior Advisor of BNP Paribas’ Sustainable Business, joins us to talk about the role of banks in regenerative transition. He also talks about how monetising externalities can revolutionise the way you do business.