Tag: Ai

Alf Gøran Knutsen – The good, bad opportunities of the multi million dollar salmon industry, from shooting lasers under water to feed

6th August 2024 koenvanseijen Regenerative Agriculture, Regenerative Aquaculture 0 Comments

Salmon: there isn’t a more contagious topic within aquaculture than salmon farming. With Alf Gøran Knutsen, CEO of Kvaroy, a leader in the world of sustainable salmon farming, we discuss the opportunities to grow a potentially very sustainable source of protein and omega-3 in a way that makes sense. We explore the fascinating world of salmon, mostly open-net pen aquaculture in the ocean in Norway, but also hybrid flow-through models. We discuss biology and technology, feeds- from using wild fish which we could eat like anchovies from Chile to soy from questionable sources in the ex Amazon- and the crazy developments in this very young industry. We also discuss AI and how lasers are shooting sea lice from salmon underwater.

Salmon farming is the biggest success story in aquaculture, at least in the global north, but it is also full of huge challenges like pollution. Picture salmon feces floating out of a net pen, sea lice, and all the chemical solutions used to combat these parasites.

Henry Dimbleby – From designing the National Food Strategy for England to starting a £50M fund focussed on food transition

28th May 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Regenerative Agriculture, Transition finance 0 Comments

A wide range conversation of almost two hours with Henry Dimbleby, founder of Bramble Partners, a venture capital firm, that invests in businesses seeking to improve food security. Before Bramble Partners, Henry co-founded Leon Restaurants and the Sustainable Restaurant Association and also served deep in the heart of the UK government as he was appointed lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

In this exchange we discuss everything from Donella Meadows in complex systems to what that means for all of us trying to influence these systems and policies and how you actually change policy. How it was to manage the COVID crisis from within the UK government, keeping food on the shelves of the supermarkets and local shops, and trying to drastically improve school meals and their accessibility for children living in poverty in the UK. Plus, a deep dive into the junk food cycle, the differences between ultra-processed food and junk food, and the crazy ultra-processed food addiction we all, or mostly, have fallen victim to. And finally, how eating lentils can change everything.

Clint Brauer – After an investment of Chipotle, ready to scale his robots to weed hundreds of thousands of acres

19th March 2024 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A check-in interview with Clint Brauer, founder and CEO of Greenfield, company powering chemical-free agriculture with advanced AI-powered robots, about his dream to get chemicals and expensive machinery out of broad acre, row crop farming (AKA soy corn farming which currently occupies millions of acres around the world, especially in large industrialised agriculture countries), the ending of the era of the chemicals, and much more.

After interviewing Clint in September 2020, we check in on what has changed; farmers and many others in the space see that the era of chemicals is ending. It might not look like that yet, but we have already won: chemical-free, broad-acre farming is totally possible; now it is about execution. What else has changed? Is Clint still interested in integrating animals, and why has Chipotle invested in the company?

Abby Rose – On raising non-extractive funding and the power of AI to help farmers with observation

20th February 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Farmers First Tech, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Abby Rose, co-founder of Vidacycle and Farmerama, about the role and potential of AI in observation, alternative investment, the power of transparency, why regenerative viticulture is so interesting, and more.

Why did someone who didn’t really need the money and had serious and reasonable questions about the tendency of startups, both in and outside the regenerative space, to keep raising money, ended up raising funding? Not in a traditional, potentially extractive way, but a revenue share, and service fee, and a cap.

Eric Archambeau – Drawing from his Silicon Valley experience and after having put €300M to work in food and ag tech, now is the moment to raise VC funds writing €100M checks

20th December 2022 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Investor Stories, Nutrient Dense Food, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture, Short Food Webs 1 Comment

A conversation with Eric Archambeau, co-founder of Astanor Ventures, about the early-stage space slowly getting crowded, the enormous influx of talent focussing on food, agriculture and soil, health care costs, AI/ machine learning, the computational power and the future of regenerative agriculture.