Tag: investment

Koen van Seijen interviewed by Naeem Lakhani and Antony Yousefian on his journey in regenerative food and agriculture and the introduction of Generation-Re investment syndicate

Koen van Seijen settles into the guest chair for a special 300th episode celebration and is interviewed by Naeem Lakhani and Antony Yousefian. Starting from a coffee with Tony Lovell of SLM Partners, we recall moments and conversations that pivoted our path from a general interest in food to a passionate advocate for regenerative agricultural practices and the untapped investment opportunities beneath our feet.

We share how the podcast has served and serves as a bridge, connecting people and ideas and how embracing the role of an investor has deepened our commitment while putting “skin in the game”.

The journey has led recently to the launch of the investment syndicate Generation-Re (https://www.gen-re.land) and the thrill of shared investment. Of course, turning tables and mics, you will find as well Koen’s answer to the 1 billion dollar question.

Sonja Stuchtey – Have billions flow into regeneration by having accountants agreeing that it is an investment, not a cost

A conversation with Sonja Stuchtey, co-founder of The Landbanking Group, about innovative financial strategies, accountancy standards and rules, reliable sourcing, better quality and lower prices, investing in the value chain and more.

Let’s say you are an orange juice or chocolate bar producer: your margins are under pressure because the costs of buying raw ingredients have exploded the last few years. What do you do? In any other business you would likely invest in your supply to secure reliable sourcing, better quality and potentially lower prices. Why haven’t we done that in regen (with some exceptions of fully vertically integrated brands)? Now it seems possible for companies to invest in their value chain so to allow orange farmers to make regen changes in the practises to future proof them. 

How? Crucially it comes back to treat it as a long term investment and not as a short term cost which will hurt you margins and, thus, annoy your shareholders. Treating investments (which btw we need billions) in regen as an investment and not a cost sounds so trivial and simple, but it takes a whole lot of technology to measure, report and a lot of talks with the big four accountancy firms to get this done.

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.

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.

Douglas Eger – How to IPO natural asset companies and raise billions

A conversation with Douglas Eger, CEO and founder of Intrinsic Exchange Group, about how to value nature and make it the centre of our economy and not some non-calculated externality, and more.

Federico Romeri on disrupting the €7,5B Italian CAFO factory farmed beef market

A conversation with Federico Romeri, founder of Pascol, to dive deep into the beef market in Italy and how to move it from CAFO factory farming to a regenerative one.

Paul Woebkenberg on Ecosia’s regen ag investments

A check in interview with Paul Woebkenberg who is leading the Ecosia’s regen ag investments, their € 500K finance fund for regenerative agriculture.

Paul Pizzala from a London city private bank to the biggest regenerative farm in the UK

How a London city private banker took a permaculture course and now applies his finance knowledge to build the biggest regenerative farm of the UK. Definitely stay until the end to hear from Mark Drewell, executive chair how investors are responding to the new equity offer compared to debt of New Foundation Farms.

Sarah Mock, Treat Farms Like Businesses

Forget everything you thought you knew about US Agriculture, the family farm myth and “successful” regenerative farmers, and take a deep dive into why should we treat farming as a business and why indigenous people should run them. An interesting conversation with Sarah Mock, Head of Marketing and Communications at Sylvanaqua Farms, freelance farmer, researcher and author of Farm (and Other F Words).