Category: Transition finance

Sara Balawajder – Building Lukas Walton’s impact first food and ag portfolio

A conversation with Sara Balawajder, Vice President of Builders Vision, who leads the impact first food and agriculture portfolio, about the opportunities of regenerative agriculture and food, and specifically nutrient density, and insurance, not health insurance, but farmers’ insurance.

Jan-Gisbert Schultze – How a VC investor got bitten by the regeneration bug and went via Joel Salatin, Gabe Brown and Ernst Gotsch deep into syntropic agroforestry

A conversation with Jan-Gisbert Schultze, a VC investor who turned into a regenerative enthusiast and bought a small olive farm, which he is turning into the first syntropic farm in Salento, in Puglia (Italy), a region battered by monoculture olive trees.

Chris Tolles – All the venture capital in the world can’t make soils change faster

A conversation with Chris Tolles, founder of Yard Stick, about soil carbon and the connection to changing agriculture practises, insetting vs offsetting, where in the hype cycle the soil carbon market is and why more companies should get really good at doing one thing instead of saying yes to every opportunity.

Emma Fuller – Making soulless capital who doesn’t care about regenerative agriculture invest in it

A conversation with Emma Fuller, co-founder of Fractal, about the transition to regenerative practices or outcomes of the millions of acres of broad-acre row cropping, corn, soy, and wheat in the US, Brazil, Argentina. Fractal provides farmers with equity financing by investing alongside them in their farmland to fund their growth.

Ivo Degn and Philippe Birker – Does a low interest, 3,5% on $2,5 million loan, really qualify as a regenerative investment?

A conversation with Ivo Degn and Philippe Birker, founders of Climate Farmers, about the reason why they picked carbon credits as the first business to focus on, how they recently raised $2,5 million in a very unusual way, at least for a startup, what they consider a regenerative investment and much more.

Charley Cummings – The silver bullet of regeneration is accounting

A conversation with Charley Cummings, founder and CEO of Walden Mutual Bank, about building a cooperative bank, owned by the customers, and why starting a bank might be the most impactful thing you can do in your regional food system and much more.

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

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.

Keoni Lee – Why the islands of Hawaii with 10 million tourists a year are the perfect and challenging place for a regenerative revolution

A conversation with Keoni Lee, CEO of Hawaii investment ready impact intermediary, about having to import massive amounts of food, inputs, fuel, etc., being at huge risk from climate disruptions and climate change and much more. Learn more on how investing with a systems change lens in food and agriculture looks like in Hawaii.

Growing Regenerative Opportunities – Koen van Seijen interviewed by John Kempf

A very special episode: Koen van Seijen, author and host of the Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food podcast, interviewed by John Kempf, the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) and a top expert in biological and regenerative farming. 

Tim Coates – Sell flood mitigation to institutional players to finance water cycle restoration

A conversation with Tim Coates, co-founder of Oxbury Bank, the UK’s only specialist agricultural bank, about flood risk mitigation, water quality, water cycle restoration, selling flood mitigation to institutional investors and much more.