Tag: food security

Sylvia Kuria — Farmers should grow their own food first

24th April 2026 koenvanseijen African Regenerative Frontrunners, Diet Change, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

Sylvia Kuria started with a kitchen garden and a refusal to use chemicals on food for her newborn. Seventeen years later, she runs Sylvia’s Basket, aggregates organic produce across Kenya, trains smallholder farmers on half-acre plots, and helped get agroecology written into county government development plans with real budget behind it. The journey from that first bottle of pesticides to a funded policy win is not a straight line — and the business realities along the way are rarely the ones that make the headlines.
The question running through this conversation is deceptively simple: should farmers feed themselves first, before thinking about any market? Sylvia’s answer, grounded in seventeen years of practice, has implications for how we think about food security, monocropping, market access, and who gets to sit at the table where decisions are made.

Ian McSweeney and Kristina Villa – You can’t address food security, soil carbon sequestration or climate change without first tackling the crisis of land access

3rd December 2024 koenvanseijen Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture 1 Comment

Why land tenure and security are key to the future of food. We’ve touched on the massive issues of land tenure, access, and security on the podcast before, but never enough. In many regions, land prices have been rising steadily for the past 50–100 years, becoming entirely disconnected from the land’s productive value—especially for those wanting to farm using regenerative agroecology. This has made land increasingly inaccessible for the next generation of farmers.

Exacerbating the problem is the aging farmer population. In the U.S., the average age of farmers is 62, which means most are nearing retirement. What happens next?

With Ian McSweeney and Kristina Villa, co-founders of The Farmers Land Trust , we focus on first-generation pioneering organic and biodynamic farmers who plan to retire soon. Many have spent their lives building successful small businesses, running community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs, hosting events, providing education, and feeding countless people. Then there’s the next generation—capable farmers who’ve trained extensively, spent years working on others’ farms, and now dream of having their own land. Yet, they can’t afford the inflated market prices.

Joachim Ewechu and Hannes Van den Eeckhout – Why Uganda is the best place for a locally owned regenerative agriculture revolution

6th February 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture 4 Comments

A conversation with Joachim Ewechu and Hannes Van den Eeckhout, co-founders of Rootical, a start-up studio that enables purpose-driven entrepreneurs in Uganda to build and own their regenerative agri-food companies. We talk about why Uganda is the place to launch and build agroecology, regenerative agriculture, and food companies, why Uganda enjoys political support for agroecology, the importance of different steward-type ownership models, the importance of different investment models, and more.