Category: Role of corporations

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 AI 4 Soil Health, Beyond Food, Diet Change, Ecosystem Services Payments, Farmers First Tech, Farmers' Philosophy, Investor Stories, Landscape Design 2.0, Landscape Tech, Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrients to Soil, Ownership, Policy and Legislation, Regeneration Newsroom, Regenerative Agriculture, Regenerative Aquaculture, Regenerative Education, Regenerative Mind, Role of Animals, Role of corporations, Short Food Webs, Soil Builders, Transition finance, Walking the Land with a Regenerative Farmer, Water Cycles 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.

Austin Unruh – Silvopasture, planting trees on millions of acres of grassland, is the most scalable and profitable regen solution

20th May 2025 koenvanseijen Ecosystem Services Payments, Farmers First Tech, Landscape Design 2.0, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of corporations 0 Comments

A conversation with Austin Unruh, founder of Trees for Graziers, about the investment case for silvopasture. What if we could plant hundreds of millions of trees on degraded, low-value pasture land and make money from it? What if we planted trees that are beneficial for livestock—ruminants, pigs, and poultry? The market for meat and animal products is fairly stable (unless we get a massive breakthrough in precision fermentation soon, but that’s hard to predict). Trees can dramatically lower costs and increase production.
Austin argues that this is the best entry point to get many more trees into the landscape. When chosen well, these trees provide shade (a basic need), but more importantly, they offer feed during the most difficult periods of the year—like high summer, or specific fruits that drop in the autumn, full of sugar and energy, just as cows prepare for the colder winter months. Especially with pasture-raised pigs and poultry, you can save massively on expensive (organic) feed, which is mostly grain. And as a bonus, pastures grow better with partial shade.
So, when in doubt, plant more trees on pasture. Of course, this isn’t always easy. You need to make sure pigs—who are notorious diggers— don’t destroy the young trees. You need to ensure the trees survive the first few years. You’ll need financing to bridge those early, non-fruit-bearing years. But all of that is fixable. And you’ll need a massive tree nursery to supply quality trees—preferably large ones—at scale and at an affordable price. Finally, we discuss why the beauty of a savannah-like landscape is so important.

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

8th April 2025 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Landscape Design 2.0, Nutrient Dense Food, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of corporations 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.

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 Diet Change, Ecosystem Services Payments, Farmers First Tech, Landscape Design 2.0, Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrients to Soil, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of Animals, Role of corporations, Short Food Webs, Transition finance 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.

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.