Listen Now

Angela McKee-Brown is passionate about how food builds and uplifts our kids as well as our communities. Executive Director of the Edible Schoolyard Project, Angie is taking on the question “what changes in our food system as a result of Edible Education?” With over a million students worldwide having been through this curriculum, the impact is not small potatoes. Join the dialogue.The Edible Schoolyard Project teaches academic subjects and nutrition through the natural world. Founded 25 years ago in Berkeley, CA by renowned chef and activist Alice Waters, there are now a million graduates of their curriculum and 5,000 affiliate programs globally. Angie is talking about learning in an unconventional setting as a way of building a generation of informed and healthy eaters, with major impacts on communities, and on food producers. We are diving further into the topic of school lunches that we explored with Marion Nestle talking about investing in school food as an essential investment in our kids. Angie makes a powerful case for the ripple impacts on our kids’ learning, on the people who work in our schools and cafeterias, and on how we grow our food. The Edible Schoolyard Project is hard at work ensuring that their programs are accessible to all during Covid. Join us to learn about how they are educating and feeding kids at home, and ways to participate.

Originally a city girl, a lawyer by training, now a proud farmer, Emma Weston CEO and Co-Founder of AgriDigital, is the consummate entrepreneur. She co-founded AgriDigital to use technology to ensure greater transparency and profitability across grain supply chains. We’re talking about the winners --and losers--from a shift to shorter and transparent supply chains. Emma’s response to who is asking for transparency? Everyone. In a globalized food system that has divorced us from the source of our food, verifiable data enables farmers to shift from price takers to value creators, allows consumers to buy with confidence--and implicates every step of the supply chain in between. By looking at trends in agtech over the past centuries, Emma charts a vision for the future of agtech innovation. This is an honest dialogue on effectively leading a fast-growing start-up through a global pandemic. No topic is off the table as Emma explores how AgriDigital is dealing with the shocks from Covid-- talking about fundraising, expansion and hiring. Emma reflects on how the pandemic has spurred a cultural change within AgriDigital, and the long term benefits of this shift. Emma has received numerous awards for her tech prowess and leadership including being named one of Australia’s Top 25 Fintech Influencers in 2017. We are diving into Emma’s perspective on being a female leader in the world of tech, and how to make this field more open to women and people in rural locations.

Dr. Marion Nestle is a leading voice in the U.S. and internationally on how nutrition, agriculture, policy and business intersect—and collide. A pioneer in the world of food studies, Marion reflects on the last 30 years in the food movement. Marion pulls no punches: we have made huge progress in voting with our forks, and we need to vote with our votes for larger system change. Marion is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, and the author of many award-winning books about food politics, including the recently released Let’s Ask Marion.Marion answers the basic and critical nutrition and food issues: what we should be eating, what are ultra-processed foods, and how the U.S. food environment is making us sick. Looking back, Marion explains how policy and the shareholder value movement accelerated the consolidation of the U.S. food system. An expert on the politics of food, Marion is talking about fragmentation in the food movement, and the need for all of us—as individuals and organizations— to engage in policy if we want larger change. Join us for Marion’s perspective on hot topics in the food system: the costs of a healthy diet, alternative proteins, and how the Covid-19 pandemic is shifting the average American’s relationship to our food. And of course we couldn’t miss the opportunity to talk with Marion about the major issues related to the pandemic and U.S food: the challenges in our supply chain, hunger, and the critical role schools play in feeding our children. And in this time of change and turmoil, Marion is sharing what gives her hope. Hungry for more? Pick up a copy of Let’s Ask Marion for a refreshingly concise analysis weaving together politics, big business, food, nutrition, environment and more. The list of topics covered is long—and yet Marion pulls it all together crisply in a series of short essays.

Finishing a PhD in tech during the 2008 financial crisis,  Rob Leclerc, Founding Partner of AgFunder, identified food as a critical industry that you can “be your career on”. AgFunder was born out of the recognition that the food and agtech industries do not have a physical center of gravity. In response to this gap, AgFunder a source for information and an investment platform based in Silicon Valley, with a global reach. Our conversation with Rob Leclerc, Founding Partner of AgFunder, is a behind the curtain glimpse at the intersection of agtech and venture capital. This is a conversation for entrepreneurs wanting to understand how venture capital funding decisions are made. And it is a dialogue on tech innovation for anyone interested in the future of food.AgFunder is about attracting the best talent to food and agriculture, and getting the best businesses funded. Through the lens of AgFunder’s alternative proteins and ESG funds we’re exploring how creating specific funds concentrates capital and creates more opportunity in a sector. And Rob is sharing his take on what makes companies ripe for investments: what stands out are exceptional founders. It is all about the right team coming along to solve key problems--and Rob talks about what qualities make up that special sauce. We are going far beyond investment strategies and to talk about the need to fuse technological innovation with respecting for ecological limits to solve our global food system challenges. And Rob is sharing analysis of where to focus food system investment and innovation in the time of Covid-19. The headlines: it’s about localizing and securing food chains through automation, alternative proteins, indoor agriculture. And focusing on how food technology supports better nutrition and health. Join us!

Journey with us into the history of coffee and the realities of social enterprise with our guide Mokhtar Alkanshali, founder of Port of Mokha. A Yemeni-American, Mokhtar shares the extraordinary path that led him to build a vertically integrated coffee company in Yemen in the midst of political turmoil and civil war. Mokhtar takes on the skeptics asking why we should care about specialty coffee: by shortening the distance between consumers and producers they are improving the quality of coffee and the lives of farmers. We’re digging into the rapid growth of speciality coffee—22% a year growth compared to 5% a year for regular coffee— and why farming in Yemen matters globally. Mokhtar argues shifting from treating coffee simply as a commodity, to coffee as an accessible luxury like cheese and wine, brings consumers pleasure and helps farmers live with dignity. Mokhtar shares how he developed buy-in from Yemeni farmers to build a business based on social impact right alongside superior taste.  This is a candid dialogue about the benefits and challenges of a vertically integrated company, and the expansion of Port of Mohka’s direct trade model into Ethiopia and Colombia.Mokhtar talks about the journey of entrepreneurship: the “adventure” and “passion” phases, how to navigate mistakes, and personal investment. Mokhtar dives into the critical issue of how to find the right investors. We are talking supply chain difficulties, the challenges in fundraising, and innovating into new product lines to diversify the business, and the bright opportunity Mokhtar sees for e-commerce. Mokhtar’s story is the subject of Dave Eggers’ book The Monk of Mohka, and he more than lives up to the interest in his blended vision for business and social impact. 

Fred Kirschenmann is a farmer, academic, and pioneer advocate for resilient farming joining us to weave together why healthy soil is essential for farmers, our planet, and for our health. An unmatched storyteller, Fred traces the evolution of US agriculture to the story of his family's farm from the Dust Bowl to the present. Grounding our conversation in the history of agriculture industrialization, Fred makes a case for shifting from a food system based around controlling nature to a food system based around relating to nature. This is a timely conversation: Fred has been warning of the risk of infectious disease increase and spread tied to agriculture for decades. As we continue to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, Fred explores how this moment of great disruption is an opening for social transformation. With his inimitable ability to identify patterns of problems, Fred explores the connections between soil health, farmer economic success, human health, and a healthy economy. Glorying in a conversation with the “Farmer Philosopher”, our dialogue delves into the relationship between spirituality and agriculture. Fred offers a vision for cultural transformation in how we related to nature and each other by engaging in meaningful peaceful conversations and relationships. Fred's assessment of the future we are facing is clear-eyed. He shares why he is hopeful that the younger generation will shift our relationship to nature. And he is equally clear that changing agriculture practices at the scale and pace needed to avert the worst of climate change is not a foregone conclusion. Join us for information and inspiration.And as promised in the episode, here is the “reading list” from this conversation:Culture and Agriculture, Ernest L. SchuskyThe Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-WellsThe Wizard and the Prophet, Charles MannBuilding a Peace Narrative, Charles Eisenstein

Mark Huang, Co-Founder and Managing Director of SeaAhead, is connecting the dots between land-based agriculture, tech, and oceans. We have come full circle— we started the summer season talking with Monica Jain of Fish 2.0 about drawing investment to seafood in 2013 when the space was largely off the investment radar. We are wrapping the summer season with Mark Huang talking about the future of innovation and oceans. Mark answers the question why those focused on soils and agriculture should care about oceans. A sneak peak: 70% of our planet is ocean, and as our growing population and the growing middle class demand more protein we will need ocean-based protein. And what happens deep inland in agriculture, has a profound impact on the oceans. Another reason to care:consumer demand for alternative proteins is growing rapidly, and seafood has the lowest carbon footprint of all animal proteins.From his vantage point at SeaAhead, experience as a venture capitalist, and leadership in public sector economic development Mark is talking about forming ocean innovation clusters. Using southern Mississippi as an example, we talk about public-private partnerships and characteristics needed for new clusters to bloom. Drawing comparisons to the growth of the renewable energy sector, Mark forecasts how the distinct policy and incentive systems in Europe, the U.S., and Singapore are driving development of bluetech. We are highlighting the specific characteristics of U.S. innovation—the venture ecosystem and the role of consumer-led demand.  Dive in with us!

Mark Watson, Managing Director of the Fair Food Fund, joins us to talk about investing to build community resilience, tackle food insecurity, and take on diet-related disease. Starting his career in finance in the 1980s, Mark was in his own words one of the few African Americans with a glimpse “behind the curtain” of big finance. Mark explains why he moved into impact investing, and where the field is headed.  We are getting specific on the qualities of successful entrepreneurs. Highlights: conviction and willingness to make course corrections are essential. From his deep experience Mark is sharing how how to form durable capital partnerships, and how to balance financial rigor with social impact.Mark is talking all the right “right kinds” of capital partnerships: Entrepreneurs: listen in for practical advice on matching sources of capital with your business’ stage of business growth. Mark shares questions to ask, and pitfalls to avoidInvestors: Mark is specific and clear on how to incorporate health outcomes, community wellbeing, and racial equity into investment strategiesThe Fair Food Fund has been actively supporting communities throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Mark is sharing examples of precisely how entrepreneurs are adapting —in some cases with huge success. Grounded in deep experience, this is a conversation on the investment strategies and partnerships that can and areaddressing the food-related issues laid bare by Covid—including diet-related disease, racial inequity, and food access.

The U.S. has a cheap food system, says Bob Quinn, founder of KAMUT International. The problem? The high costs down the road: farmers going broke, decline of rural communities, pollution of the earth, and loss of our health. Bob makes a clear argument for valuing food that makes and keeps us healthy, and how to drive this change. Join our conversation about farming for health.Bob, a farmer with a Ph.D in plant chemistry, and a consummate entrepreneur, was motivated by economics to experiment with organic agriculture on his family farm in the 1970s. The financial benefits led him to transition the full farm to organic, and as the farm changed he learned about the environmental and health payoff. Bob grew his passion into founding an heirloom wheat business which he took from a local operation in Montana into the global brand--KAMUT International. Bob weaves together a story of entrepreneurialism, with the history of wheat, and a call to treat food as medicine. Looking at 100 years of the history of bread in the U.S. Bob explains why we started manufacturing highly-processed breads, and how an experiment with an ancient wheat grain led to KAMUT International. It is a story of international partnership as Italy grew to be the largest market for KAMUT, and in the process Bob and his Italian research partners made remarkable discoveries about the health properties of ancient wheat. And this is a sobering story. In spite of sourcing from certified organic farms, Bob shares how glyphosate is leaching into crops in the plain states and Saskatchewan-- through the soil and in the rain. The levels have reached such a high concentration that KAMUT has been forced to dramatically cut exports to Italy given Italy’s high organic standards.  Bob proposes a vision for 100% organic agriculture in the US. It is a vision that does not hinge on public policy but on consumer demand and the opportunity growing demand creates for farmers. We’re exploring how the organic transition can be a win-win. A leader in the field of organic agriculture, Bob is talking in specific terms about how to create a healthier future by growing better food.

Nina Meijers of Rabobank’s FoodBytes! and Claire Schlemme of Renewal Mill are joining us to talk about building 21st century food businesses. We’re talking to Nina and Claire side by side to understand how FoodBytes supports innovation and the opportunity for entrepreneurs. It’s a conversation on the diversity of ideas, technology, and products that characterize future food enterprises, the collaborations that enable innovation, and how the Covid crisis is accelerating the pace of change. As one of the largest banks in the world and a global leader in food and agriculture lending, Rabobank has a clear interest in ensuring we get out ahead of global food security challenges. FoodBytes! is Rabobank’s innovation arm, bringing together startups, large companies and investors through Pitch, a startup discovery platform, and Pilot, a corporate innovation program. Renewal Mill, a FoodBytes alum, captures and upcycles the large volumes of food production by products into pantry staples and value-added foods. Renewal Mill is our case study to learn how the journeys of FoodBytes! alumni weave together through peer collaborations, and opportunities to pilot projects with large industry players.Our conversation explores how both of these organizations are taking on the Covid crisis full throttle, and what they are learning in the process. Their number one takeaway: Covid has exposed the pre-existing fissures in our food system. The need to address food accessibility, shorten supply chains, and decrease food loss is visible to all, providing a mandate to build a better system. We’re talking about adapting sales channels and strategies, fundraising, and fresh insights on the factors prompting consumers to try new products. And explore how FoodBytes! is plunging boldly into taking their Pitch program virtual, redesigning to engage a global audience and create substantive connection.For those of you itching to take action, FoodBytes! Pitch is accepting applications through August 10. We’re talking about the opportunities for entrepreneurs--with Claire’s advice on how to navigate the process-- the ways investors and major companies can engage, and the kinds of future food businesses to expect coming out of this forum.

Food is the #1 product going to landfill in the US. It is simple to sell people on the problem, but what to do about this complex problem stymies action. Dana Gunders, Executive Director of ReFed, has been focused on this issue for a decade and sheds light on the many ways to take on the challenge. Dana is issuing a call to action, and each one of us is a part of the solution.Dana weaves together the seed of her personal passion for food waste, ReFed’s cutting edge economic analysis of solutions, and parallels between energy efficiency and food waste. Expect a dialogue on data, motivating capital, public policy, and consumer- behavior. And learn about food waste pre-Covid, and how the pandemic has accelerated food recovery trends and online marketplaces.Join us to learn which parts of the food waste problem are ripe for innovation, and how food waste management is a key sign of a well-run business. Dana is helping us take the critical issue of food waste and break it down into specific solutions. Whether you are an entrepreneur, policy maker, investor, corporate executive -- there is an opportunity here for you. And for all of us as eaters, we’re on the hook too.

Joe Blunda, CEO of Forager, digs into how Covid-19 has created a once in a generation reset around American food culture. People are rethinking their relationship to who provides their food in a time of crisis. The result? A spike in demand for local food. With restaurants and schools shuttered during the Covid crisis, grocers have been struggling to keep up. Forager is using technology to solve grocers’ challenges and get local food on the shelves.Joe shares new data on how consumers are paying ever more attention to the health,  justice, and environmental problems around food. We hear Joe’s analysis of how local food meets this cross-section of needs, and how to meet consumers where they are: in the virtual or physical grocery aisle. Joe lays out how getting local food into wholesale channels is a critical driver of farm success. This is more important than ever when our primary means of getting local food— farmer's markets, restaurants, schools—are closed or operating in extreme uncertainty.  Joe unpacks the key problems for grocers: lack of flex in the supply chain, tight margins, and price compression. We’re buckling down on how technology is helping make local foods competitive with the large industrial food chain. Joe traces his roots as an entrepreneur to a childhood gig selling blueberries on the roadside in Maine. This seeded a passion for business, and for food. From his work outside the world of food and agriculture, Joe shares his perspective on the fragmentation and low levels of tech adoption in the world of food, and how this might be shifting. We’re exploring how to use this time of crisis to draw attention to food access, justice, and equality, and making sure consumers understand what foods are best and why.Join the conversation on change management in the world’s largest and oldest business—food.

The landscape of food system accelerators and incubators keeps expanding — for FoodSystem6 this is not competition, it’s more opportunity to drive change. Caesaré Asssad is talking about what the next version of our food system, the 6th food system, will look like and how entrepreneurs are powering us forward. Caesaré is sharing her personal why for working in food, asking us to question how we participate in the food system, and getting specific on how values alignment guides FoodSystem6’s work. Caesaré credits the survival rate of their cohort as about more than the business plan, it is about values alignment and relationships with entrepreneurs who positively impact their communities. In a time of massive upheaval, FS6 is extending their focus globally to support vibrant ecosystems, justice and fairness. FS6’s brand new circular economy initiative is about entrepreneurs closing the loop in all aspects of their business. Learn about why FS6 is focused on circularity, and where this is going. They are accepting applications now and interested in a variety of entities —cooperative ownership, nonprofits, packaging— drawing from a global pool.Caesaré takes on the question of how entrepreneurship is a part of addressing the systemic racism in our food system. She shines the spotlight on the people doing the hard work—those whose labor has built our system and who show up each day to bring us food. And how entrepreneurs can and are raising up the people who literally ensure we can eat each day. We are surfacing the critical issues and exploring exactly how each of us can and already are shaping the food system. Join the dialogue. 

"The current farming and financial systems are extractive industries," states Robyn O’Brien, co-founder and director of partnerships at rePlant Capital. Robyn cut her teeth as a financial analyst studying the food industry — she shares how food companies in the 1990s were boasting about swapping in artificial ingredients to reduce costs with no examination of the long-term impacts. Learn how Robyn awakened to the effects of our chemical intensive food system for each of us and for our planet. A journey that led her to write The Unhealthy Truth as she investigated the impacts of food production on the health of American families.  Paralleling her own awakening, Robyn digs into the roots of  the consumer push for clean food and transparency based on the dramatically rising diseases in our children. The food and financial industry failures to address these systemic issues spurred Robyn and her partners to create a financial services firm focused on financial resilience for farmers, building soil health, and drawing down carbon. rePlant is pushing the financial industry beyond outdated metrics of farm yield and corporate quarterly earnings.  We get specific about the types of project rePlant funds, digging into how they partner with farmers and their families. And we get a behind the curtain glimpse into the highly personal motivations of corporate leadership to drive change. Venture with us beyond farming and finance into a candid dialogue on how Robyn fuels her entrepreneurial creativity. We are talking about working through fear, learning from failure, and building the daily discipline of self-care. Robyn’s perspective on how the twists in our career paths weave together is honest and full of practical wisdom. Robyn is the first to say that rePlant is one company looking for a whole industry to grow around regenerative capital. We’re talking about the long game for farmers and for investors. Robyn’s advice to industry: embrace radical transparency as 21st century leadership. And Robyn is telling us what transparency looks like—and how consumers are critical to this shift.

U.S. consumer demand for clean label foods is outpacing domestic supply of key ingredients--enter Pipeline Foods. Eric Jackson, Chairman and Founder, talks about why farmers struggle to find organic markets, and why big companies struggle to meet their organic needs---and how Pipeline is partnering with both. Rounding out the picture, we’re discussing major breakthroughs coming fast down the pike linking soil and human health. This is a conversation about system change and how change is happening right now. Eric contextualizes why the growth of organic and regenerative agriculture is critically important, explaining how skyrocketing U.S. healthcare costs have paralleled the use of chemical agricultural inputs over the past decades. Pipeline is building the essential, yet invisible, link between farmers and major food companies so the organic and regenerative food industry can grow. We learn about the financial support, infrastructure, and crucial community support farmers need to shift to organic and regenerative practices. We dig into how major companies are a crucial part of the transition, and we explore how consumers are a critical lever of change. We go for a fascinating dive into the agricultural industry, and how advances connecting soil health and human health are accelerating change. Eric shares insight into how quickly researchers are gathering data linking industrial agriculture and the rise in disease and healthcare costs in the US. Underpinning our conversation is how the Covid-19 pandemic has thrust the connections between food and health into the headlines and what this could mean for the food and agriculture industry.

Spoiler alert: the nutritional information we think we know about our food is incomplete and inaccurate according to Greg Shewmaker, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of TeakOrigin. Greg explains why the price we pay for food in grocery stores has no relationship to nutritional quality, and how TeakOrigin is bridging the gap. We’re talking about the implications for eaters and producers—and how major retailers are helping to drive progress.TeakOrigin came out of Greg’s experience as a curious consumer in Hong Kong wondering about what he was eating. This simple question led to the startling realization that there are no simple answers to what we should be eating, and why this is the case. We explore a future where we as consumers can use our phones to scan our food and know the precise nutritional profile of what we are eating. But first, the company is building the data to make this possible. TeakOrigin is flying forward creating new data every five weeks— starting with produce, and with applications for meat, dairy, and wine. Our conversation extends into the need for an ecosystem that stitches together the technologies trying to solve our global food challenges. Greg envisions a collaboration that battle tests technology for effectiveness and ensures we can easily deploy and apply technologies where they are most needed. We are not talking about dusty models of information sharing, we’re getting specific about how to construct a collaboration that produces results.This is a story about nutrition, data, tech, and collaboration—and how these come together for the future of our food. And yes, we dig into how all of this is playing out as we navigate the Covid-19 uncertainties. Join our conversation. 

From the trenches of their meat processing facility Ben Meyer and Jimmy Serlin of Revel Meat dig into the challenges in the US meat industry and how small processors are changing the status quo. Revel Meat Co is a USDA meat processor and retailer in Oregon. Revel partners with ranchers to allow them to focus on raising animals— taking on marketing, packaging, labelling to match larger retailer quality. This duo is building a blueprint to apply to small processors across the country and they share specifically what this means.We caught Jimmy and Ben on a busy day at the plant to explore how they partnered with a family operation and honored this legacy to create their business.  Ben and Jimmy dig into how the consolidation of the meat industry and  loss of small facilities has created the dissonance we’re experiencing right now: record high prices and grocery store shortages for consumers, coupled with record low prices for live animals for producers. Jimmy and Ben lay out the clear business proposition right now for entrepreneurs and investors in the meat sector—and this duo is talking about how to jump in. We explore the need and opportunity for small scale processors and how the support of federal agencies like USDA are lightening the load. Jimmy and Ben are working to create an adaptable blueprint for the 900 small plants across the US, we explore what this means from sourcing,  to management, equipment, and efficiencies.Join the conversation to learn how to change public policy as the frailties of our meat supply are in the headlines. The Revel Meat take: small processors proving their model gives legislators alternatives to construct legislation around, and consumers a tangible alternative to learn about and support. And critically Ben and Jimmy talk about how farmers and ranchers calling their legislators clears legislative logjams.Join this conversation and be prepared to take action when you do.

Christine Moseley is talking with us about how Full Harvest is using technology and innovation to solve the food waste problem at scale. The shocking statistic that 40% of our food is wasted has gained public attention. Less known is that one third of all edible food doesn’t leave the farm because it’s ugly. The result is lost revenue for producers, lost product for companies, and lost food for consumers. Add to the mix : food waste has been identified by Project Drawdown as the #1 contributor to climate change. Full Harvest is disrupting a largely offline industry to create wins for farmers, food and beverage companies, consumers and the planet. Christine dives into her experience as a founder with a candid exploration of the need for peer to peer entrepreneurial networks. We talk about the need for relationships based on honesty and vulnerability—and how Christine has created those networks. Christine shares practical advice on how to create an organizational culture that can adapt to challenges, getting specific about how her team is rising to the challenge and opportunity presented by Covid-19. Join our conversation to explore food waste, technology, innovation and how organizational culture can take over when the perfect strategy no longer matters and it’s all about solving the root problem. 

In Episode 1 Monica Jain, Founder and CEO of Fish 2.0 talks about starting a venture, running it successfully, declaring victory and evaluating the future of the seafood sector in the time of Covid-19. Fish 2.0 was designed to stimulate investment and collaboration in the seafood sector. Monica shares with us how her team met this goal by raising over $300 million in investment, working across 65 countries, and developing a network with 600+ ventures and 500+ investors.We talk with Monica about the positive changes in the seascape of investment and entrepreneurship in sustainable seafood. Monica debunks the “1980s argument of farmed vs. wild seafood” diving into where the sector is headed and how Covid-19 crisis is an accelerator of change. Join the conversation: let us know how you would like to see the industry evolve, and the barriers you’re facing in making a contribution. Send us your questions and ideas: we will post Monica’s response to the top 5. And spread the word: inspiration and actionable insight is coming from the FoodCrunch podcast every single week.