The ReGen Brands Weekly - Volume 20

This Week’s Episode:

Highlights:

• 🤤 Our favorite Lundberg products

• 🤯 How the business has scaled to 107 SKUs

• 🫡 The visionary regen influence of founder Albert Lundberg

• 🆒 Why rice is a great crop for their region + soil type

• 😍 The market that spurred their adoption of organic

• 😯 How they manage water, grass weeds, and aquatic weeds

• 🦆 How they’ve rescued over 30,000 duck eggs

• 🤩 Their “Ducking Good Rice” marketing campaign

• 🏅 Reaching 8,000 acres of Regenerative Organic Certified® rice

• 🎯 Why brands = markets = practice change (in that order)

Recap:

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

• Check out the recap! 🙃 

• Everything you need to know (+ funny GIFs) in less than 5 minutes. 🥳

ReGen Brand Deals:

🍔 AKUA is raising money to support retail launches in over 3,000 stores that include their new SpongeBob SquarePants Kelp Patties in partnership with Nickelodeon.

Invest now for as little as $100.

🥓 Grass Grazed is raising money to launch a snack line and starting with an original pork stick made from 100% pasture-raised pork.

Back their project for as little as $5.

ReGen Brand News:

• 🏅 New Barn Organics Unsweetened Almond Milk & Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk are now Regenerative Organic Certified

  • New Barn is sourcing regenerative organic almonds from Burroughs Family Farm.

• 🤔 New Barn, Same Price: How One Brand is Aiming to Reshape Regen-Ag Economics

  • “We’ve always had this sense of the way we’ve defined our purpose as we exist to unfuck food,” said Robb. “Our external version of it is that we exist to make food better and I think what that means to us is that everything we do with New Barn, it’s really about looking at what are the longer-term decisions that go into the product that we’re making?”

• 🌳 What Would Regenerative Farming Mean For Almonds?

  • There are now two large-scale almond production experiments underway in California supported by consumer-facing food brands that would like to source nuts that can be claimed to have been grown using regenerative methods.

  • Also - Why is there no almond emoji!?!?

• 🍫 Tradin Organics enhances regenerative organic cocoa production in Sierra Leone with EU-backed project

  • Tradin Organic and its consortium of partners will work on deforestation prevention and improving cocoa farmers’ livelihoods in Sierra Leone by further building regenerative agroforestry systems. The company has initiated a €2.5 million (US$2.6 million) project supported by the European Union (EU).

• 🫛 Hippeas® Announces Leading-Edge Regenerative Agriculture Collaboration with Avena Foods

  • The collaboration includes the development of a field crop 'living lab' demonstration with Rosengren Farms, an Avena grower. Rosengren has over a decade of experience in the innovative practice of growing multiple crops (grains and pulses) in combination, which is also referred to as intercropping. This important sustainability project, with the support of Saskatchewan's South East Research Farm, will evaluate the intercropping practice for climate impacts through scientific modeling.

• 🐑 Freedom Run Farm Joins Regenerative Agriculture Movement with Land to Market

  • “We are dedicated to stewardship of the land, the family, and the flock. ‘Raised right, tastes right’ has always been our motto. With the Land to Market seal, our customers can have confidence that Freedom Run Farm lamb products have been scientifically proven to heal the earth.” Valerie Samutin, Executive Director, Freedom Run Farm

• ☕️ Nestlé publishes first Nescafé Plan 2030 Progress Report

  • In 2022, the Nescafé Plan 2030 farmer trainings on regenerative agricultural practices reached more than 100,000 farmers in 14 countries.

  • In addition, 1.4 million trees were planted in and around coffee farms that supply coffee to Nescafé, providing shade to prevent coffee’s over-exposure to the sun and additional revenue sources for farmers.

• 💡 Where the crops go by Ariel Patton

  • Good fodder on the necessity for demand and infrastructure investment to be a key point of any conversation regarding the regenerative agriculture transition.

  • Case in point: “Illinois is the number one state in producing pumpkins. It’s not because Illinoians have a penchant for pumpkin pie or have more Halloween spirit than the rest of the country. It’s because the company Libby is responsible for producing 80% of the world’s canned pumpkin. Libby’s canning facility is located in — you guessed it — Morton, Illinois. Farmers around Morton respond to the markets available to them by growing pumpkins.”

  • Ariel wraps the article with the correct take that even though “voting with your dollar” can make a difference, there are huge political and societal changes needed to support adequate markets for regen.

  • I also like Colin’s thoughts here. 👊

Sharing Is Caring:

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ReGen Brand Jobs:

• 🍚 Lundberg Family Farms is looking for an Account Manager, Project & Process Engineer, Systems Engineer, & Staff Accountant

• 🔬 Soil Carbon Initiative is hiring a Company Program Manager & Farm Finance Specialist

• 🌎 General Mills is looking for an Environmental Sustainability Manager, Direct Sourcing

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

• 👩‍🍳 La Tourangelle is hiring a Marketing Communications Specialist

• 🥥 Purely Elizabeth is looking for a Director of Supply Chain

• 🥖 Wildfarmed is looking for a New Product Development Manager in the UK

• 🐓 The Regenerative Agriculture Alliance is hiring a Farm Enterprise & Engagement Director

• 🌊 Atlantic Sea Farms is looking for a Chief Growth Officer, Brand Ambassadors, & Quality Assurance Technician

• 🥛 Danone is hiring a Project Manager for regen ag implementation

• 🦬 Force of Nature is looking for a Creative Director, VP of Marketing, Senior Accountant, Staff Accountant, & AR / AP Specialist

Fun Stuff: