Tag: protein

Mike Velings – VC & PE won’t deliver regeneration — €250M evergreen proves it

A conversation with Mike Veilings, co-founder of Aqua-Spark, a global investment fund for sustainable aquaculture, about how an invite he should have never received lead to the creation of the largest aquaculture fund in history, with over $250 million in assets under management (AUM) and ambitious plans to grow to $2 billion or more. This conversation goes beyond the billion dollar question—it’s already been answered. We explore why focusing on long- term investments is essential for transforming an industry and why current venture capital and private equity fund models might cause more harm than good. How can we bring institutional investors into agriculture and food, and what financial mechanisms can facilitate this? We also dive into the key drivers in aquaculture and discover why Mike is so enthusiastic about the future.
This episode is special—it’s not every day we discuss billions and institutional investment strategies with someone who has a real chance to raise the funds and put them to work.

Joseph Rehmann – Climate-positive fish is possible and its eggs are delivered by drones

A conversation with Joseph Rehmann, co-founder of Victory Farms in Kenya, with the mission to be the world’s most sustainable fish business and provide high nutrition protein to the mass market in Africa. How do you go from being a happy but unfulfilled banker to co-founding one of the leading and largest animal protein companies in East Africa?

We unpack Joseph’s journey into fish farming—specifically tilapia, a species indigenous to the region- and how he and his company are proving that it can have a net positive impact on the environment, people, and finances. Of course, Victory Farms’ journey hasn’t been without challenges. Feed is obviously a challenge and led to starting their own feed mill, reducing import of soy and maize from abroad and experimenting with local feed ingredients and cold chain and spillage. Managing the cold chain has been another significant challenge—especially in the East African context, where stable and clean electricity is notoriously hard to come by. Yet, they managed to figure out solutions using AI and machine learning and reduced spillage to under 1%, a remarkable achievement in an industry where losses often reach 30–40%.

We also dive into their bold decision to outsource a critical part of their value chain: the growing of eggs. By partnering with local village entrepreneurs who manage their own ponds, they’ve created a system where harvested eggs are delivered to Victory Farms using drones. This isn’t just a flashy gadget; but makes scale possible. A single drone carrying up to 500,000 eggs completes a trip in six minutes—a journey that would take a cooled truck two hours, assuming a road exists at all.

John Holmyard – Lowest carbon protein aka mussels: it’s food, not a high tech unicorn

A conversation with John Holmyard, founder and managing director of Offshore Shellfish, 21st century mussel farming: guilt-free food that helps regenerate marine biodiversity and captures carbon. We talk about protein. With a growing population, we need more and more of it. So, what is the lowest impact and positive impact protein source we can grow? A deep dive into the largest offshore mussel farm in Europe, where they grow large amounts of mussels by grazing large number of plankton that naturally flows by. And, in case you are wondering, there is so much plankton around because we depleted most of the fish stocks that used to eat a lot of it.

We learn all about how to build the largest mussel farm in the UK and how to deal with regulators who have no idea what shellfish farming even means (they think you hunt mussels in the wild). We explore why mussels are such a potential crop to grow, and they can even restore natural mussel reefs, which used to be present all around the North Sea until we started bottom-trawling. And why are politics fundamental to the business when all of your crop goes fresh to mainland Europe?

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.

Eric Jackson – Want to work on nutrient density? Start with animal protein

A conversation with Eric Jackson, board chair of BioNutrient Food Association, about nutrient density, the research, the practical implication, soil carbon credits, cell-based and plant-based meat replacements and more.

Pierre Weill – After certifying the quality of over $3B of animal protein a year, now turning to vegetables

A check-in conversation with Pierre Weill, a world-leading researcher and practitioner when it comes to nutrient density and food and co-founder of Bleu-Blanc-Coeur, the largest certification body in the world focusing on the quality of food, about the latest scientific developments, research on animal protein and vegetable nutrient density, and more.

Knut Bentzen on how to scale virtual fencing, the true enabler of regeneration

The second in a series of interviews unpacking the potential of virtual fencing with the team of NoFence. This time Knut Bentzen, CEO of NoFence, we discuss the enormous potential of managed grazing of ruminants on food quality, protein production, soil carbon, water quality, animal welfare, etc.

Philipp Stangl on why blending regenerative meat with plant-based is key to get animal protein consumption down and regenerative production up

Philipp Stangl, the CEO and Co-founder of Rebel Meat joins us to talk about the critical roles of blended products, transparency, and changing consumer patterns towards regenerative transition.

John Arbuckle on the role of pigs in regenerative ag and why we have to build brands

John Arbuckle, founder of Singing Pastures, joins us to discuss their uncommon, revolutionary, and regenerative practices of growing pigs.

Brad Vanstone on why just being a vegan cheese company isn’t enough to have a big impact

Brad Vanstone is the founder of Willicroft, a plant-based cheese for dairy cheese lovers who is going deep into regenerative agriculture and soil.