ReGen Brands Podcast

On this episode, we have Jared Simon who is the CEO at Manitoba Harvest.

Manitoba Harvest is North America’s leading hemp food brand, and they’re supporting regenerative agriculture with their recently released Regenerative Organic Certified® Hemp Hearts.

In this episode, Jared breaks down how hemp is grown and some of the agronomic differences between conventional, organic, and regenerative organic cultivation. Jared also shares how Manitoba Harvest is developing their commercial strategy around regenerative and what this means for both their branded business and B2B ingredient business.

Jared was super engaging and insightful, and we really enjoyed gleaning his insights on how a legacy, scaled brand like Manitoba Harvest starts prioritizing regen, opportunities he sees in the broader regen movement, and how their work is influencing the larger, publicly traded parent company they sit within.

Episode Highlights:

💥 Their 25-year history pioneering hemp foods

🌱 The differences between hemp and cannabis

💪 Why hemp is a nutrition powerhouse

🔬 Using AI-Powered nutrition research to drive innovation

👉 Investing upstream to add value

💡 How they think about their regen strategy

📈 Scaling ROC™ hemp with B2B & B2C

👀 The future of regenerative marketing claims

🔥 Educating Tilray’s other brands on regen

🎯 Getting to critical mass with retailers and consumers

Links:

Manitoba Harvest

Hemp Oil Canada / Fresh Hemp Foods

Tilray Brands

Brightseed

Regenerative Organic Certified®

Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC™) Hemp Hearts

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On this episode, we have Blaine & Brooks Hitzfield from Seven Sons. Blaine is the CEO while Brooks serves as the COO.

Seven Sons is supporting regenerative agriculture with its direct-to-consumer meat business that sells regeneratively raised beef, bison, pork, and chicken as well as seafood and other snack items.

Seven Sons sources their regeneratively raised meat products from their own 550-acre farm in Roanoke, Indiana, and from other regenerative farmers around the Midwest. 

In this episode, we hear how the family farm transitioned from a conventional hog operation to a multi-species pastured livestock operation, plus Blaine and Brooks take us behind the scenes on all things direct-to-consumer e-commerce and how they’ve grown their business to 75,000 orders a year.

This was an absolute masterclass in operating a DTC brand, connecting with consumers authentically, and making regenerative products accessible through convenience.

Episode Highlights:

👏 Growing to 14,000 customers & 75,000 orders a year

😦 Their family journey from conventional pork to regen beef

⁉️ Are there actually seven sons in this business!?

🤯 Scaling to 53 pickup locations then shutting them down

👉 Why education isn’t a winning marketing strategy

😵‍💫 How to avoid “death by diversity” as a farmer

🍗 The challenges of pastured poultry economics

🎯 Winning with Quality, Authenticity, & Convenience

💲 Their winning DTC playbook (acquisition, retention, assortment)

💡 Being your own customer to improve your business

Links:

Seven Sons

Graze Cart

Pasturebird

Byron Center Meats

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On this episode, Kyle and I are flying solo to bring you some updates and thoughts coming out of Expo West.

For those who don’t know, Expo West is “the annual Super Bowl of CPG” with over 67,000 attendees this year and a gathering of anyone and everyone working on CPG brands supporting regenerative agriculture - from certifiers, to investors, to the brands themselves, and many more.

Kyle and I spend some time covering our personal highlights, favorite new products, plus the state of the union for CPG capital investment and regenerative marketing claims.

Episode Highlights:

🖤 The power of human connection 

🤤 Our favorite new items from regen brands

🔊 Regenerative dominates Climate Day content

⭐ Regen brands take home 5 NEXTYs

😍 Big sourcing commitments and funding rounds announced

💯 Today’s major operating hurdles for regenerative brands

💰 Current investment landscape and implications for regen brands

👀 California defining “regenerative agriculture”

👉 The fallacy of positive competition in the regenerative movement

🙏 Using hope, empathy, and vulnerability to create harmony in regen CPG

Links:

ReGen Brands

Expo West

Force of Nature Meats

Big Picture Foods

Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed

Sol Simple

Artisan Tropic

Alec’s Ice Cream

Patagonia Provisions

Climate Day

Regenerative Organic Certified®

Regenified™

A Greener World

Soil & Climate Initiative

The Stockdale Paradox

One Step Closer

TIG Brands

Steward

Lil Bucks

California Defining Regenerative Agriculture

Silk

White Oak Patures

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On this episode, we have Hovik Azadkhanian who is the Founder and CEO of Heirloom Coffee Roasters.

Heirloom Coffee Roasters is supporting regenerative agriculture with its 6-SKU lineup of Regenerative Organic Certified® whole bean coffees.

In this episode, we learn how Hovik is carrying on his family’s legacy as a third-generation coffee roaster, how the brand has grown from one Bay Area retail location to going nationwide with Sprouts in less than a year, and why regenerative agriculture is the key to saving coffee.

One thing is clear from this episode - when people tell Hovik he can’t do something, he is going to do whatever he can to prove them wrong. This spirit underpins Heirloom’s audacious goals which range from selling 100% regenerative organic certified coffee, to pioneering emissions-free electric roasting, and much more.

Episode Highlights:

🙏 Three generations of family coffee roasting

💡 Going from B2B coffee roaster to CPG brand

👉 “The fight to save coffee”

🥇 Why Regenerative Organic Certified® matters

🧑‍🌾 Creating better futures for coffee farmers

💫 Building “premium” into the brand and packaging

⚡ Using Bellwether’s electric coffee roasters

😮 From 1 store to nationwide in 9 months

🎫 Using KeHe’s “Golden Ticket” to land Sprouts

 🔊 “We have to make it feel good and taste good to do good”

Links:

Heirloom Coffee Roasters

The World's First Regenerative Coffee Research Lab

Heirloom & Bellwether’s Electric Coffee Roasters

Sustainable Harvest Relationship Coffee

Regenerative Organic Certified®

Good Food Awards

KeHe Golden Ticket Announcement

Green Spoon Sales

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On this episode, we have Jody and Crystal Manuel and Brei Larmoyeux, who are the Co-Founders of Gruff.

Gruff is supporting regenerative agriculture with its Regenerative Organic Certified® Ancient Grain Grits. Gruff’s grits are made from organic cracked Farro and are table-ready in just 12 minutes.

In this episode, we learn about Jody and Crystal's journey transitioning their farm from conventional to organic plus all the spectacular nuance of how they’re currently weaving annuals, perennials, and animals to create a winning regenerative organic system.

Crystal shares the story of how feeding their many children a nutritious breakfast inspired the creation of Gruff, and we have Brei and Kyle sidebarring on how we can bring these nutritious grits to bodybuilding bros and other performance athletes across the world.

Gruff is a vertically integrated, farmer-led, regenerative brand with a great story and a ton of growth potential - we enjoyed diving into it all with Jody, Crystal, and Brei.

Episode Highlights:

🤤 Ancient Grain Grits made with cracked Farro

💡 Crystal’s health journey that changed their farm forever

👏 A beautiful integration of annuals, perennials, & animals

🥣 The bulk kids’ breakfasts that inspired their hero SKU

🤝 Why crop diversity requires market diversity

🤩 Beefing up on-farm impact reporting with Mad Ag

💪 Growing for Purely Elizabeth & Patagonia Provisions

🎯 Making weeds an indicator instead of an enemy

🔥 The foodservice opportunity for farro grits

💥 1 Mom at a time, 1 family at a time, 1 eater at a time

Links:

Gruff

Timeless Natural Food

Montana Organic Association

Montana Milling

Moz

Pluck Seasonings

Save The Bros

Mad Agricutlure

Purely Elizabeth

Weeds and Why They Grow

The Dorito Effect

EQIP

Nofence

Vence

Culinary Institute of America

School of Lunch

Three Billy Goats Gruff

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On this episode, we have Nick Wiseman who is a Co-Founder and the CEO of Little Sesame.

Little Sesame is supporting regenerative agriculture with its lineup of organic and regeneratively farmed hummus products that includes a flavor lineup of Smooth Classic, Jammy Tomato, Caramelized Onion, Herby Jalapeño, and the newly launched Preserved Lemon.

In this episode, we learn how Nick and his team pivoted Little Sesame from restaurant to retail during COVID, the “freshly-spun” difference that makes their hummus unique, and Little Sesame’s explosive growth strategy and results.

We covered a ton with Nick, and this episode is super rich with insights into everything from direct-trade farm relationships, to driving product velocities at retail, to building self-manufacturing as a competitive advantage.

Episode Highlights:

😍 “Freshly spun” hummus made with regen chickpeas

😯 Pivoting from restaurant to CPG during COVID

🍋 Their new lemon preserve hummus

🔥 The ROI in self-manufacturing 

🤝 Partnering with their chickpea farmer, Casey Bailey

🤯 Farmer Casey’s “10-year regen experiment” and 17-crop rotation

🎯 Obsessing over velocities to drive growth

💰 Why brands need diverse capital stacks and new financial models 

🥳 Using seasonal SKUs and brand collabs to grow

🚀 Planning 1,000+ demos for 2024

Links:

Little Sesame

The Hummus Club

Timeless Seeds Inc.

Athletic Brewing Article

Glyphosate In Hummus (EWG)

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On this episode, we have Joséphine Bournonville who is a Co-Founder and the COO at Omie.

Omie is supporting regenerative agriculture with its lineup of more than 200 French pantry staples that are sourced from regenerative farmers.

Omie’s agri-engineers work with over 40 manufacturers and 200 farmers to bring this vast assortment to life. Farming operations are audited with a Regenerative Index score then Omie works with the operators to create a roadmap for improvement and further regenerative practice adoption. All of their products are given a Planet Score, with more than 90% of the portfolio scoring an A or B and nothing being offered that isn’t at least a grade C.

In this episode, we learn about Joséphine’s journey from clean-tech investing to agribusiness M&A to a regenerative food startup, and we hear how Omie has scaled from a direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform into France’s leading regenerative brand.

Joséphine was an amazing endcap to our first international series! Omie is doing incredible work, and it was inspiring and informative to hear about their efforts and compare them to all the other brands we’ve had on the show. 

Episode Highlights:

🇫🇷 France’s leading regen brand with over 200 products!

🚜 Joséphine’s journey ​​from agribusiness to regen CPG

🤯 Working with 46 manufacturers and 260 farmers

🥣 Their new kids' cereal lineup featuring millet

🔥 The power of a strong DTC customer community

💯 Using radical transparency to build trust

📝 Roadmapping improvements with “the regeneration index”

👏 Dedicating 1% of sales to regen practice adoption

🔊 The recent farmer protests in France & Europe

🗯️ Engaging in advocacy + policy to drive change

Links:

Omie

Groupe Roullier

Decathlon

The Regeneration Index

Planet-score®

Farmer Protests

Thierry Marx

2050

Lively Earth

RFSI Europe 2024

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On this episode, we have Jay Albany who is the CEO of Wide Open Agriculture.

Wide Open Agriculture is Australia's leading regenerative food and agriculture company and operates 3 distinct enterprises. Under the name Dirty Clean Food, they operate a direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform that sells 300 different regenerative and artisan products directly to wholesale customers and individual consumers. They’ve also launched a line of branded, oat-milk-based CPG products under the Dirty Clean Food name as well. 

WOA is focusing its future growth on its third enterprise - producing and supplying Buntine Protein® created by processing Australian sweet lupin. Sweet lupin serves as a rotational crop in regenerative systems of the Western Australian wheat belt but currently does not have a large, profitable market as a human food ingredient.

Wide Open Ag’s business is a beautiful blend of targeting both local and global impact while operating under their “4 returns” mandate which includes financial, natural, social and inspirational returns. 

Episode Highlights:

👏 Their mission to regenerate the Western Australian wheat belt

🔮 How Jay met the Founders and joined the team

🥩 Bringing better food to Western Australia

🍔 Landing a burger joint to catalyze their brand

📈 Growing Dirty Clean Food to $12M

🥛 Launching the world’s 1st regenerative oat milk

💰 Sweetening the economics of sweet lupins

💥 Introducing Buntine Protein® - a better plant-based protein

🔥 Why Buntine Protein® is better

👍 Tackling local and global impact at once to scale regen

Links:

Wide Open Agriculture

Dirty Clean Food

Short Order Burger

Oatly

Minor Figures

Buntine Protein®

Curtin University

Wide Open Agriculture acquires Prolupin

Saputo Dairy Australia

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On this episode, we have Rafaela Gontijo Lenz who is the Founder and CEO at NUU.

NUU is supporting regenerative agriculture with its lineup of regenerative, cassava-based foods that includes cheese bread, chees bread pizza, tapioca sticks, and more. These items are sold in over 1,500 retail and foodservice points of sale in Brazil.

In this episode, we learn how Rafaela was inspired to leave her job at Johnson & Johnson to start a cheese bread company supporting smallholder farmers, her regenerative awakening and NUU’s regenerative journey, and their recent 4 million dollar fundraise that is set to power their future vision.

NUU is a certified B Corp, certified carbon neutral, led by an entirely female C-suite, and has been recognized by The United Nations as 1 of 50 global companies to help lead the regenerative food movement.

Episode Highlights:

🇧🇷 Our 2nd international episode with NUU from Brazil!

🤤 Why Rafaela left Johnson & Johnson to start NUU

🧀 Bringing better Brazilian cheese bread to the masses

🤩 Their indigenous, hero ingredient: yuca (cassava)

🧑‍🌾 Building supply chains to purchase from smallholder farmers

🤝 Engaging investors, NGOs, and the government in their regen journey

💡 Why all their SKUs are “air fryer friendly”

💰 Their recent 4 million dollar fundraise!

❤️ Why we need to re-feminize the food system

🔥 Using event ambassadors to drive discovery and trial

Links:

NUU

NUU Secures $4 Million in Series A Funding

NUU’s Zero Carbon Factory

The history of Pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread)

Kiss The Ground Movie

Jornada Amazônia

Dengo

VEJA

EcoEnterprises Fund

farfarm

Pão de Açúcar

Carrefour

Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation

Alex Atala - Mandioca 

The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food

Donos do Mercado 

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On this episode, we have Edd Lees who is one of the Co-Founders at Wildfarmed. 

Wildfarmed is supporting regenerative agriculture with its lineup of regenerative wheat flours that are used in retailers, restaurants, and bakeries across the United Kingdom and powered by a network of 80 regenerative farmers.

In this episode, we learn how the brand was started when a famous DJ traded in his turntables for a tractor, how they’ve grown the business through a branded B2B2C strategy, and their big plans for their first Wildfarmed CPG product launch in 2024.

Episode Highlights:

🥳 Our 1st international episode with Wildfarmed!

🎤 How a grammy-nominated musician became a regenerative farmer

🔥 “First they laugh at you, then they hate you, then they want to join you”

👏 Scaling their B2B2C strategy from 1 bakery to 400 customers

🤩 Their regenerative standards and network of 80 farmers

😯 How they won a 25-year tenancy on their demonstration farm

🎯 Why their brand is all about being “Full of Life”

⚡ Their 1st branded CPG launch coming in 2024!

🤯 Partnering with a nationwide retailer to sell bread AND grow wheat

💥 Why stale category + high household penetration = opportunity

Links:

Wildfarmed

Andy Cato

Wildfarmed Standards

Henry Dimbleby

National Trust

The Green Revolution

Cairnspring Mills

Steward

RFSI

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