#34 - Big Food's New Regen Ag Framework + The 100M Acres Initiative + Regen Organic Fruit Value Chains

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

Brought to you by The ReGen Brands Podcast

This Week’s Episode:

Highlights:

• 🎒 Will’s transition from educator to entrepreneur

• 🥭 How his wife inspired their focus on tropical fruit

• 🤩 Connecting 1,200 smallholder farmers to a better market

• ☀️ Investing in solar drying tech for higher quality & lower emissions

• 🔥 Why they needed to build a consumer-facing brand

• 👏 Creating an agronomic consulting and farmer financing company

• 💫 Building a processing facility and a B2B ingredient company

• 🌴 Helping farmers diversify through regenerative agroforestry systems

• 🍌 Becoming the 1st Regenerative Organic Certified® fruit supply chain

• 💰 Building better incentives for regen through economics and policy

Recap:

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

• Check out the recap! 🙃 

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

ReGen Brand News:

👏 Common Ground and major ag brands have a plan to save America's farms and put 100 million acres into regenerative agriculture by 2025

• Big Picture Ranch, the film studio behind 'Common Ground', a new documentary demanding change from current American farming practices, announced a new $10 million commitment to move 100 million acres of U.S. farmland to regenerative farming by 2025.

• The "100 Million Acres Initiative" will build a coalition of farmers, ranchers, non-governmental organizations, and for-profit companies that have pledged to transform at least 10% of their crops, ranches, and supply chains to certified regenerative farming.

• Progress will be measured using three verified certification partners: Regenified, Regenerative Organic Certified and Land to Market.

🔍 CPG Giants, Farmer Co-ops Commit to New Global Definition of 'Regenerative Agriculture’

• The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform’s framework offers a globally aligned definition of regenerative agriculture — to which 30 agriculture co-ops and the 170-strong SAI Platform member group have already committed - including Danone, Hershey, Kraft Heinz, Mars, Nestlé, Oatly, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Target and Unilever.

• The framework will assess, monitor, and verify farm practices to aid the global transition towards regenerative agriculture. The program identifies four key areas of impact — water, soil, biodiversity, and climate — and has devised four clear steps through which to enact the framework — risk screening assessment, outcome selection, the adoption of principles and practices, and the monitoring and assessment of progress.

🏃‍♂️ Quick Hits:

🔥 The Regenerative Organic Alliance has launched a Regenerative Organic Certified® brand and product directory.

🥔 McCain Foods has unveiled its brand-new podcast titled “Hot Potato,” in a bid to shed light on regenerative agriculture.

🤝 SIMPLi is empowering farming communities through its Regenerative Organic Certified® supply chains.

🥩 The Carman Ranch collective now spans 220,000 acres and has been certified as “Tier 3” under the Regenified framework. Meet the woman behind the group of ranches coming together to market their grass-fed beef under the Carman Ranch brand.

🍷 Meet Domaine Bousquet, a 7,300-hectare Regenerative Organic Certified® vineyard in Argentina that is the first international winery in South America to be awarded the ROC certification.

☕️ illycaffè presents the first coffee certified regenagri®.

🍺 Big beer companies like Carlsberg, Diageo, and Heineken are turning to regenerative agriculture to try to tackle emissions in their supply chains.

🥚 Handsome Brook Farms has officially launched the Climate Smart Organic Egg Project made possible through a USDA Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities grant.

🐄 Verde Farms welcomes Brad Johnson as President.

ReGen Brand Jobs:

• 🫘 SIMPLi is hiring an Account Manager - Foodservice

• 🥩 Force of Nature is looking for an Operations Administrator

• 🐚 Atlantic Sea Farms is hiring a National Account Manager

• 🍍 Sol Simple is looking for a Marketing Coordinator

• 🍚 Lundberg Family Farms is hiring a National Account Manager & Senior Sales Planning Analyst

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

Fun Stuff:

😍 Common Ground, the sequel to Kiss The Ground, has released its Official Trailer.

🙋‍♀️ You can buy tickets and request screenings HERE.

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