consumers – Investing in regenerative agriculture

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

22nd October 2024 koenvanseijen 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.

Juliette Simonin – Teaching over 400.000 consumers that a farm isn’t a screw factory while selling them 4,7m boxes of organic and regen fruit and veggies straight from the farm

15th October 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Juliette Simonin, co-founder and COO of CrowdFarming, a company that works with over 320 farmers and sells fruit and veggies boxes directly to 400.000 consumers. In this discussion, we explore how Juliette transitioned from working at a large insurance company to co-founding Europe’s largest direct-to-consumer organic fruit and vegetable platform.

How do they educate these consumers that a farm is not a screw factory, and that every fruit is different? Delivery times depend on harvests and weather. The conversation also touches on how they keep consumers engaged in the process of growing fruits, and how vital it is for farmers to know there is a growing demand for their organic produce as they make changes to their practices.

Finally, we discuss why CrowdFarming is focused on helping farmers transition toward regenerative practices. Spoiler alert: resilience is a key driver. This resilience is also why the company bootstrapped for most of its early years before eventually deciding to take on outside capital.

Cristina Domecq – Building a regenerative movement by connecting 350000 consumers directly with 250 farmers

14th July 2023 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Cristina Domenecq, Impact & Sustainability Officer at Crowdfarming, about direct-to-consumer platforms, consumers ready to buy long term, farmers ready to supply long term, transparency and more.

Annette Mueller on managing over 2000 hectares biodynamically and selling everything directly to the end consumer for more than 40 years

7th September 2021 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

Fattoria La Vialla di Gianni, Antonio e Bandino Lo Franco has managed hectares of land using organic farming since 1978. With La Vialla’s communication manager Annette Mueller we discuss why we need to invest more money in the fertility and biodiversity of the soil and also the estate’s success in direct-to-consumer distribution.

Ed Byrne, if regen food doesn’t taste amazing and doesn’t make money it won’t go anywhere

25th August 2020 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

Ed Byrne is the co-founder of Soil Works Natural Capital. Here a conversation about the scale and business and the role of decentralized processing in regenerative agriculture. They also discuss the importance of taste to make a profit and its impact on consumers.

Mark Frederiks on how to radically change the food system through local supply chains

25th January 2020 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

Mark Frederiks is an entrepreneur and the Dutch Hub Manager of SMARTCHAIN. An interview on short food webs.