Lauren Manning is a Senior Associate at the Croatan Institute, an independent, nonprofit research and action institute whose mission is to build social equity and ecological resilience by leveraging finance to create pathways to a just economy.

Lauren is an attorney, law professor, and farmer with a dedicated passion for all things farming. Before joining Croatan Institute, Lauren was a venture capital investor with food and ag-focused VC firm AgFunder where she focused on deal flow and due diligence. Lauren began with AgFunder in 2015 as part of AgFunderNews media and research team reporting on issues involving finance, agriculture, climate change, and more. Lauren owns a small farm in Northwest Arkansas where she raises cattle, sheep, and goats. She is a partner with Ozark Pasture Beef, a direct-to-consumer grass-finished and pasture-based livestock partnership selling beef and lamb.

Connect with the Croatan Institute Website | LinkedIn

Brandon Welch is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mad Capital. Beginning in 2019, he formulated the idea for the Perennial Fund and has led all efforts from whitepaper creation to financial modeling, fundraising, portfolio management to building the team. In 2021, he led the close of $10M into the Perennial Fund I from 42 investors in 7 countries. He previously managed the Colorado Carbon Fund, a revolving nonprofit fund focused on driving capital into carbon removal projects in CO. 

Connect with Mad Cap Website | LinkedIn

Natalie Collins is the Interim President of the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG), who exists to protect and promote the interests of California winegrape growers by providing members a unified voice, effective advocacy and strong leadership. CAWG promotes the winegrowing industry’s long-term success by advancing the adoption of sound public policies, and fostering awareness and understanding of winegrape growers’ contributions to the economy, environment and California communities.

Connect with CAWG Website | LinkedIn

Troy Carter is the CEO and Co-founder of Earthshot Labs, a startup building the technology and expert guidance to develop and finance nature based carbon projects globally. Their mission is to restore nature at the planetary scale. Seizing the unprecedented opportunity of the carbon market, Earthshot is building the technology and operational capacity to scale carbon credits globally in alignment with regenerative principles.

LandOS is a tech enabled platform that guides land stewards step-by-step guidance through the carbon development process. Biome uses the smartphone’s augmented reality capabilities, whether based on IR or LiDAR, combined with the camera in order to create a three dimensional map of all the trees surrounding the user.

Connect with Earshot Labs Website | LinkedIn

Celebrating 250 episodes with a fresh Acre Insights episode. Thanks for listening over the past five years!

Links  Co-op Details | Sponsor the Podcast | Will Harris Interview

Igino Cafiero is the Co-founder and CEO of Bear Flag Robotics, which was acquired by Deere & Co in August 2021 and is now run as an independent subsidiary. Bear Flag Robotics is developing autonomous farming technology. Growers can orchestrate a fleet of autonomous equipment directly from their smartphone or tablet, allowing them to realize productivity gains and reduce their operational expenses.

Connect with Bear Flag Robotics Website | LinkedIn

Rob Hranac is the CEO of Pattern Ag, an agtech startup developing a recommendation and product discovery platform centered around a deep understanding of soil. They are leveraging advances in genomics, robotics, and high-resolution agronomic data to build this knowledge, in service of improving farm profitability.

Rob joins the podcast to talk about his path to Pattern, their investors and long term vision, and how scaling the company has gone over the past few years. Tune in to learn more!

Connect with Pattern Ag Website | Twitter

THRIVE Global Impact Summit, November 17, 2022 in San Jose, CA Website Use Code PRTNR25 for 25% off

Bill Stoddart and Chris Zuehlsdorff are the CEO and COO, respectively, of Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT, which is an organic farmland finance company that provides farmer-friendly leases and mortgages to the next generation of organic farmers. Since their founding in 2007, they have directed $85 million in investments in organic agriculture. Their goal is to make organic agriculture the norm, not the exception in America to benefit the health of the soil and of future generations.

Connect with Iroquois Valley Website | LinkedIn

This week Tim and Tyler share their takeaways from the Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum that took place in Denver last week! Tune in if you’re ready for some hot takes on investing in regenerative agriculture.

Join the Co-op! Co-op Details | Buy an Pass | Resources | Follow us on Twitter

Oscar Baracaldo is the CEO and Co-Founder of Farmfolio, an agtech platform that has come together to fulfill a single mission ― To Evolve Agribusiness Ownership.  This simple and compelling mission has guided the company to create some of the most meaningful operations in the country of Colombia, for Farmfolio, and for farm owners across the globe. Farmfolio currently exceeds $70M of assets under management and has created high-ranking fully integrated solutions from LATAM into international markets including the US and Europe.

Connect with Farmfolio Website | LinkedIn

Join the Co-op! Co-op Details | Buy an Pass | Resources | Follow us on Twitter