Tag: technology

Henry Dimbleby – From designing the National Food Strategy for England to starting a £50M fund focussed on food transition

28th May 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Regenerative Agriculture, Transition finance 2 Comments

A wide range conversation of almost two hours with Henry Dimbleby, founder of Bramble Partners, a venture capital firm, that invests in businesses seeking to improve food security. Before Bramble Partners, Henry co-founded Leon Restaurants and the Sustainable Restaurant Association and also served deep in the heart of the UK government as he was appointed lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

In this exchange we discuss everything from Donella Meadows in complex systems to what that means for all of us trying to influence these systems and policies and how you actually change policy. How it was to manage the COVID crisis from within the UK government, keeping food on the shelves of the supermarkets and local shops, and trying to drastically improve school meals and their accessibility for children living in poverty in the UK. Plus, a deep dive into the junk food cycle, the differences between ultra-processed food and junk food, and the crazy ultra-processed food addiction we all, or mostly, have fallen victim to. And finally, how eating lentils can change everything.

Chris Bloomfield and Daniel Reisman – We need animals outside to feed the planet sustainably

22nd March 2024 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of Animals 2 Comments

A conversation with Chris Bloomfield and Daniel Reisman, co-founders of Collie, a provider of virtual cow guidance system for managing production in grazing, about enabling regenerative dairy, how virtually fencing and cow guidance drastically reduce labour and boost production. To feed ourselves and the planet sustainably, we need to include animals as part of agriculture. We dive deep into going from vegan to grazing, animal welfare, and the state of our planet. How do we enable more farmers to hold complexity on their farms? How do we use technology to enable complexity instead of using technology to make everything mono, as we have done in the last 50 years?

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

2nd January 2024 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrient Density in Food, Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture 6 Comments

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.

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

10th November 2023 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 1 Comment

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.

Zach Weiss – On a mission to train hundreds of thousands of people in key water restoration techniques

15th August 2023 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Landscape Design 2.0, Regenerative Agriculture, Water Cycles 1 Comment

A check-in interview with Zach Weiss, founder of Elemental Ecosystems and Water Stories, about his mission to train hundreds of thousands of people in key water restoration techniques, institutions, how would Zach make the space investable and bankable, and much more.

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

18th April 2023 koenvanseijen Nutrient Dense Food, Nutrient Density in Food, Regenerative Agriculture 2 Comments

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.

Fides Lapidaire and Yanna Hoek – Why human shit is going to save the world

4th April 2023 koenvanseijen Nutrients to Soil, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Fides Lapidaire and Yanna Hoek, the creators of Holy Shit, a documentary on how our shit can feed the world, about human shit or human treasure as they like to call it, the gap in our circular food system, the need for a mindset shift, the technology needed and more.

Eric Archambeau – Drawing from his Silicon Valley experience and after having put €300M to work in food and ag tech, now is the moment to raise VC funds writing €100M checks

20th December 2022 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Investor Stories, Nutrient Dense Food, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture, Short Food Webs 2 Comments

A conversation with Eric Archambeau, co-founder of Astanor Ventures, about the early-stage space slowly getting crowded, the enormous influx of talent focussing on food, agriculture and soil, health care costs, AI/ machine learning, the computational power and the future of regenerative agriculture.

Connie Bowen – Instead of replacing farmworkers, let’s design agtech to help the ones doing the back breaking work in the field

11th October 2022 koenvanseijen Ecosystem Services Payments, Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Connie Bowen, co-founder of Farmhand Ventures, a venture studio redesigning the future of work in agriculture, about the labour issue and building collaborative automation agtech.

Rose Marcario – From growing Patagonia to $1b in sales to making early stage regen tech investments

27th September 2022 koenvanseijen Beyond Food, Farmers First Tech, Investor Stories, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture, Role of corporations 1 Comment

A conversation with Rose Marcario, former president and CEO of Patagonia and current founding partner of ReGen Ventures, about moving from an organic food company to joining an early-stage VC fund focused on regenerative technologies.