#30 - The 'BamNut' Regenerating West Africa, Certification Round Up, & Super New News

Weekly episodes, news, and insights from the world of regenerative CPG

Brought to you by The ReGen Brands Podcast

This Week’s Episode:

Highlights:

• 😍 What are BamNut Noodles and BamNut Milk?

• 🙏 How Chris’ Austrian town and grandfather inspired him

• 🌏 Chris’ career in food across the globe

• 😡 Our huge combined problem of land degradation & deforestation

• 🤩 The game-changing Bambara Groundnut

• 🇺🇸 Why they chose the US as their 1st commercial market

• 🧪 The massive R&D lift to commercialize new crops at scale

• 🤝 Their amazing work with farmers in Africa

• 🤯 Upcycling Bambara waste to create biochar and renewable energy

• 🔑 Gen Z spending and voting power is the key to a regenerative future

Recap:

• Don’t have time for the full episode? 😵‍💫 

• Check out the recap! 🙃 

• Everything you need to know in less than 5 minutes. 🥳

ReGen Certifications & Verifications:

🏅 The Landscape of Regenerative Product Certifications

• 🥳 Kristina Tober recaps the top 6 certification / verification programs we’re tracking.

• 👉 A recent study found that only 19% of consumers have heard of “regenerative ag.” This lack of understanding around the nutritional and planetary benefits of products made with regeneratively grown ingredients explains why two-thirds surveyed (66%) also said they won’t pay a premium for these products. This is where certification and verification programs can help, providing a number of important benefits.

🙋‍♂️ We are hoping to feature a guest blog post every week.

📧 Drop me a line if you have something to share at the intersection of regenerative agriculture and CPG.

ReGen Brands Insights (ICYMI):

✅ How Regenerative Brands Can Verify Their Sustainability

• Backed by a robust scientific methodology that combines advanced DNA sequencing, ecological computing, and machine learning, BeCrop® Rate establishes a single metric, not a certification, that satisfies the verification of regeneration.

What (super smart) people are saying about this blog ⬇️

ReGen Brand News:

🐓 This Network of Regenerative Farmers Is Rethinking Chicken

• The team at Tree-Range Farms is pioneering an approach to raising chickens and trees in tandem, storing more carbon and water in the soil while providing an entry point for new and BIPOC farmers often left out of the conventional system.

• Check out Episode 33 with Founder & CEO Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin to learn more about this “regenerative ecosystem” of chicken production.

👉 Weak Standards Undermine Regenerative Agriculture

• The Founders of Merge Impact assert that: “We need to strike a balance between standards that are reasonable but that also set the bar high.”

• You can't change what you don't measure. Describing a process as regenerative implies that there has been a corrective change from damaged, degraded, or depleted status. But if no baseline measurements have been established or recorded, tracking progress becomes infinitely more difficult.

• Verified data services provide the integrity and opportunity we all need to incentivize more positive change at the field level and bring value back to the producers.

🧀 Snack Cracker Startup Tastes New Markets, Opportunities Fueled By Regenerative Agriculture

• Cheddies has expanded its line of high-protein, low-carb cheddar crackers into more than 2,500 retailers nationwide.

• Their growth has been powered by an emphasis on regenerative agriculture, which the company originally pursued during the height of the pandemic as a workaround for supply chain issues that left the business “under siege.”

• Check out Episode 20 with Co-Founder & CEO Francisco Pergola to learn more about Cheddies.

🏃‍♂️ Quick Hits:

🌾 Oatman Farms has launched a Rewards Program. All you have to do is purchase an item to be enrolled.

🍷 Medlock Ames is Sonoma County’s 1st Regenerative Organic Certified® winery.

👏 Diaspora Co. & Bam have been selected to the Early Growth cohort of Whole Foods Market’s Local and Emerging Accelerator Program (LEAP) with Little Sesame & 12 Tides selected to the On the Verge cohort.

🍗 Paul Greive from Pasturebird recently joined Koen on the Investing In Regenerative Agriculture And Food Podcast.

🤩 Citizens of Humanity has teamed up with Erewhon to release a limited-edition denim tote bag made with 100 percent regenerative cotton.

ReGen Brand Jobs:

• 🍚 Lundberg Family Farms is looking for a Senior Manager, Category Insights & Sales Strategy, Customer Sales Analyst, National Account Manager & Account Manager - Food Service

• 🍷 Bonterra Organic Estates is hiring a Regional Manager - Northern California

• 🦬 Force of Nature is looking for a Regional Sales Manager - East

• 🧃 Danone is hiring a Program & Methods Manager, Regenerative Agriculture

Fun Stuff:

📸 Check out the Bambara Groundnut or ‘BamNut’ in a Pali village in 2022, where mothers and children participate as harvesters!

🙏 Thanks for sharing, Theodore!

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