Tag: data

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

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.

Tom Hengl – We should reward the stewards of the land like we celebrate Olympic champions

A long-overdue check-in conversation with Tom Hengl, director at OpenGeoHub and one of the leading scientists in earth observation and remote sensing—one of the most cited in his field, belonging to the top 0.1% (based on Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers). We discuss the significant changes in the world of remote sensing, satellites, and the hype surrounding AI, machine learning, and large language models over the past three years. While the hype has brought some interesting advancements, it also distracts people from the real work that needs to be done.

We delve into the AI4SoilHealth European project we are part of, discussing how we can already monitor and observe most places on Earth from the sky at a resolution of 30 by 30 meters. Importantly, we can now look back nearly 25 years for almost all locations in Europe and analyse changes on a field-by-field basis. While we might not know the individual farmers, we can identify their fields, and we can train models to make predictions and provide actionable, relevant advice.
We explore the idea of celebrating farmers and land stewards who have successfully regenerated their plots of land over the past decades. But how do we shift a culture that celebrates sports over regenerative farming? Finally, we touch on the challenges holding back some of this work, including the need for reliable and affordable in situ in-field soil health analysis.

Jason Hayward-Jones – Corporates paying for low carbon grains and why virtual twins are key in gaming and Scottish whiskey

A check-in interview with Jason Hayward-Jones, founder & director at REGENFARM Ltd., and Sustainable Agriculture Specialist at Cefetra, about why corporations are suddenly paying for low-carbon grain, what it has to do with virtual digital twins, why that is such a potentially disruptive technology and, finally, why it is connected with gaming and Scottish whisky.

Bridget Emmett – Moving over carbon soil compaction is the real issue in agriculture

A conversation with Bridget Emmett, British ecologist, Professor and Science Area Head for the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, about the EU Mission Soil, what is the role of technology, remote sensing, digital twins, etc, and what role should and could policy play.

Kat Bruce – Going from putting insects in a food processor to raising $27M in 10 years and building the biggest eDNA biodiversity monitoring company

A conversation with Kat Bruce, founder of Nature Metrics , going from scooping insects with a small net and putting them in a food processor, to analysing the goo with an eDNA machine, to working with lots of large food corporations on measuring their biodiversity, food footprint, and impact.

How do you look back at raising 27 million dollars and spending 10 years building the biggest biodiversity measurement company using eDNA in a time where very few people care at all about biodiversity, let alone invest in measuring it. How do we analyse water at a catchment area to see what lives in that area? How about soil measurements for DNA at scale, and what about air sniffing and analysing? And why are the corporations only coming in in the last few years? Where are people moving, and what is still missing?

Cameron Frayling – Forget biodiversity credits (for now). Regen ag farm land funds and regulation are driving the biodiversity sector

A check in conversation with Cameron Frayling, CEO of Pivotal Earth, about biodiversity, one of the most important sets of things we should track and measure, and yet it is super difficult and mostly hasn’t been done until now at scale at all. The data is simply not there, so what do we do? With Cameron we check in with one of the leading companies trying to bring technology to this space and make biodiversity measured at scale and cost-effective.

We learn a lot about the current tracking devices and new hardware Cameron would love to see developed, how little most biodiversity experts actually know and not many are able to identify the right insects, etc. What data to trust and how to build trustworthy data, plus the most active customer of the company, not biodiversity credit developers, but regen farm land forestry developers that want to report to their investors about biodiversity gains because the investors are asking for it or regulation is forcing them.

Eric Smith – Commoditization is the root cause of all ecological destruction and human health impacts

A conversation with Eric Smith, CEO and co-founder of Edacious, who is building a technology platform for differentiating quality of food. Eric and Koen talk about measuring quality and how to turn around objectively one of the most complex systems ever, from one driven by chemicals to one driven by biology, with abundance as an outcome. The solution, according to Eric, is radical transparency.

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.

Thimm Zwiener – Using chat GPT and the best regen advisors to create a regenerative hotline for all

A conversation with Thimm Zwiener, co-founder of FarmOn, a regenerative hotline for independent farming advice, about how to give everyone of the 600 million farmers in the world access to a trustworthy and regenerative field experience when they have questions, the role of technology, especially the newly hyped large language models like ChatGPT, the risks, and much more.

Henry Rowlands – Listening the world’s soil heart beat cheaply, audibly, in real time

A conversation with Henry Rowlands, CEO of Soil in Formation (SIF) about how to measure a holistic set of parameters related to soil risks and soil health accurately, in-situ and in real time by using electrochemical sensors and more. Soil in Formation (SIF) is on the verge of making it possible to measure a holistic set of parameters related to soil risks and soil health accurately, in-situ and in real-time by using electrochemical sensors that are set to enable the auditable measurement of soil carbon and soil health.