#43 - BIG Week 4 Regenified™ + Mighty Regen Tortilla Chips + A Regen Love Story

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

Brought to you by The ReGen Brands Podcast

This Week’s Episode:

Highlights:

• 💪 Creating a chip that won’t break in dip

• 🥇 Being employee #1 at Sir Kensington’s

• 😂 Zack’s year-long journey to pick his entrepreneurial pursuit

• 🤯 The history of “flint corn” and why they use it

• 🔥 Importing flint corn from Italy for their first growing season

• 🤝 How regenerative claims can help brands get on shelf at retail

• 😬 Launching nationally in Whole Foods during COVID 

• 🌽 Why the best tortilla chips start as tortillas first

• 🌟 Using A Greener World (AGW) for regenerative certification

• 👀 Their new “Rolled” chip line and why they aren’t regenerative

Recap:

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

• Check out the recap! 🙃 

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

ReGen Farmers 🤝 ReGen Brands:

❤️ The CPG and Farmer Connection: A Love Story

• 🥳  Elizabeth Candelario takes the reigns to share how the Regenerative Impact Program partnership between Purely Elizabeth and Mad Agriculture resulted in an unexpected love story.

• “Bringing the folks behind the brands and their farmers together creates the potential for a love story that is the beginning of true regeneration for ourselves, for our food system, and for our planet.”

🙋‍♂️ 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 Brand News:

👉 Regenified™ Is Creating The Framework We Need To Save The Planet

• The problem is that while there are regulations regarding what can be called "organic," there have not been similar standards for regenerative farming. Realizing this gap in the marketplace and wanting to combat the issue of unethical "greenwashing." Brown and his partners established Regenified to help farmers understand what methods are truly regenerative and help buyers gain the confidence they are purchasing food grown and harvested sustainably.

• Regenified conducts regenerative farming assessments of farmers’ operations on behalf of the farmers themselves or of large food buyers, such as grocery stores, processed food companies, and the like. These assessments quantify the extent to which the operations are successfully implementing, maintaining, and expanding regenerative practices.

🥃 Maker's Mark® Bourbon Advances its Pursuit of Flavor Through Nature With the Filling of its First Certified Regenified™ Barrel

• It becomes the first spirits distillate to achieve this certification. With this certification, the brand continues on its long-term mission to cultivate bourbon that betters the world, while crafting the most flavorful product possible.

• To be Certified Regenified, more than 75% of the grains in the mashbill must be sourced from Certified Regenified farms. This historic barrel filling was made possible by the strong partnership and shared vision between Maker's Mark and its long-term partner farmers in the Kentucky community who supply its corn and distinctive flavoring grain of red winter wheat, which together make up 86% of the iconic Kentucky bourbon's mashbill.

🍷 Mendocino Wine Company Becomes the First Regenified™ Certified Wine Grape Grower

• Mendocino Wine Company is the world’s first wine grape grower to receive Tier 3 Regenified certification for its estate vineyards.

🏃‍♂️ Quick Hits:

👏 There are now 96 Regenerative Organic Certified® farms stewarding 144,347 acres in North America.

🫘 SIMPLi has been named “Changemaker of the Year” by NOSH and just launched their products in PCC Community Markets.

🔮 Natural Grocers’ trend predictions for 2024 include “The Battle to Define ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ Begins” & “Be a Regenivore.”

🍷 Bonterra Organic Estates launches a limited-release Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC) Red Blend exclusively online.

🍺 AB InBev is promoting regenerative practices to help farmers restore soil health.

🥩 Grass Fed Foods is partnering with Montana’s Matador Ranch.

🚜 Food decarbonization comes of age at COP28.

🍫 GoodSAM’s CEO Heather Terry contends that CPG adoption of regenerative agriculture is going to require regenerative thinking and regenerative business models.

ReGen Policy:

📞 Support the PRIME Act

“Back in the 1960s, the USDA started to roll out regulations that centralized meat processing, and led to the closing of tens of thousands of small, local butcheries. By the 1990s, roughly 5 companies controlled 80% of all meat products consumed in the US.

Today, that problem continues, as farmers and ranchers across the country lack practical access to small-scale, affordable butchering options. The main thing preventing more people from accessing well-raised, local meat is the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which turns farmers into felons if they sell you meat that doesn't first go through a USDA processing facility.

Well, excitingly, there’s now an act - the PRIME Act - that represents the first substantive change to US meat regulation in almost two generations. This act would allow farmers to meet demand for locally produced meat by unlocking access to local slaughterhouses.

In my opinion, this is one of the best bills you could possibly support to nudge the country towards a more local food system. Apparently, the average bill gets fewer than 10 calls or emails about its passage. Please do call or email your local legislators and ask them to support the passage of the PRIME Act.” (Read Justin’s full thoughts under the title “Biz Stuff”)

You can find your Congressional representative here, and your senators here. Simply reach out via call or email and ask them to sign onto HR 2814 (if they’re in the House) or S907 (if they’re in the Senate). Simply saying something like “Please support the passage of HR2814 / S907 and enable farmers to meet demand for locally produced and butchered meat.” will go a long way.

ReGen Brand Jobs:

• 🍵 Ancient Nutrition is hiring a Partnership Marketing Manager

• 🦴 Kettle & Fire is looking for a Director of Sales - West

• 🌾 La Tourangelle is hiring an E-Commerce Specialist

• 🥛 Danone is looking for a Program Implementation Manager (West) - Regenerative Agriculture

• 🦬 Force of Nature is hiring an Operations Manager

Fun Stuff:

Check out this cool post from Lundberg Family Farms on World Soil Day:

😎 Think what we do is cool and want to help? Forward this to a friend!

🤠 Forwarded this email and want to join our crew? Subscribe here!