- The ReGen Brands Weekly
- Posts
- The ReGen Brands Weekly - Volume 24
The ReGen Brands Weekly - Volume 24
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 the first nationally available pastured pork stick
💫 The importance of courage, commitment, and creativity
😂 How they cold-called their way into Thrive Market
🙏 Bootstrapping and “betting the farm” on the brand
🤤 Their new Salami SKUs coming soon
🐷 Rotationally grazing pigs + using humane nose rings
♻️ Upcycling local food waste to help feed their pigs
🤔 Why they lead with “pasture-raised” vs “regenerative”
👉 The problems with regenerative being tied to organic
😡 Why corporate capture of government prevents scaling regen
"Selling a CPG product is a fancy way to keep my husband farming because you can tell that he really, really likes farming. So this became a product to be able to help create a viable farm. It was a way to get our product to the populations of people that would enjoy them and want to buy them.”
“You can make more money selling beer than you can selling hops, right? So we decided to become stakeholders in CPG because otherwise, we’re always at the mercy of commodities and that downward pressure on price point. Farmers really need a seat at the table.”
Recap:
Don’t have time for the full episode? 😵💫
Everything you need to know (+ funny GIFs) in less than 5 minutes. 🥳
ReGen Brands Market Research:
🥳 Lindsey Boyle takes the wheel to author our first guest blog post!
👩💻 What You’ll Learn:
We need great marketing to increase the awareness of and demand for regeneratively grown food.
Good marketing starts with deep, strategic market insights.
Right now, no one is doing that!
Lindsey’s ideas on what we should be doing instead!
🙋♂️ We are hoping to feature a guest blog post on a weekly basis, so drop me a line if you have something to share at the intersection of regenerative agriculture and CPG.
ReGen Deals:
Highlights:
Vertically-integrated organic and regenerative dairy that is producing skyr yogurt with milk from their family farm and others in the area
$1.3M in sales in their first full year in business
Fastest-growing yogurt brand in dollars + units in the natural channel
Since launching in March 2022, their yogurt is sold in over 45 states, nearing 1,500 locations
Projected to hit $3.5M in revenue this year
Credit: Painterland Sisters
ReGen Brand News:
🌻 La Tourangelle Introduces New Lineup of Oils including two new Regenerative Organic Certified® SKUs
Credit: La Tourangelle
Credit: Alec’s Ice Cream
So you flew all the way to California to try a limited-edition milkshake??? |  |
The brand experienced a 171% year-over-year increase in sales in Q1 and Q2.
“Since GoodSam's inception, our team has been wholly dedicated to disrupting the traditional food system in new, sustainable, and delicious ways by creating truly mutually beneficial partnerships with our farmers, participating in transparent and intentional partnerships, and always working toward making a positive impact around the world.” - GoodSam Founder & CEO Heather K. Terry
Credit: GoodSAM Foods
We’re canceling White Claw & Truly for the rest of summer FOREVER and only sipping on seltzers made with regenerative organic vodka.
Montana Ranchers Hold Music Festival to Highlight Regenerative Ranching, Direct Beef Marketing
Old Salt Co-op is a direct-marketing limited liability corporation formed by four ranches in the Blackfoot Valley area.
Mannix said he had been stewing over how ranchers could gain a premium for the stewardship that goes along with their beef.
"What direct marketing does is help us bring more money back per bite of grass."
Repeat after me…
(REGEN PRODUCTION + INFRASTRUCTURE + BRANDS = REGENERATIVE OUTCOMES)
🕺 But wait, there’s more!
We love to see regenerative agriculture coverage on huge networks like CNN with big players like McDonald’s funding research!
“I used to think we have to get people to stop eating meat. But then I walked onto these farms and talked to these farmers. Animals in grasslands are how nature has built soil for hundreds of thousands of years and if you put the five biggest crops grown in America on a scale and put cattle on the other side, the crops create five times as much carbon emissions because of the way they are farmed. If you’re worried about climate change, it’s plows, not cows.”
AC’s Insights:
“A strange, bipartisan alliance is pushing to make 22 USDA commodity-promoting programs — e.g., beef, dairy, and corn — more accountable, and less harmful to smaller producers.”
TL;DR:
Right now, the USDA runs 22 “checkoff” programs on certain commodities that charge farmers a certain percentage of their sales to run pooled, coordinated marketing programs that are supposed to “expand market share, increase revenue and get the word out.”
Farmers are pushing back by saying these programs are unfair, lack return on investment, and just pad the pockets of large agribusinesses.
Credit: M. Timothy O’Keefe / Alamy
What does it mean for regen brands?
These programs are LARGE (like $80M a year for beef type large), and they promote commodities generally. So there is no emphasis on the difference in quality, farming practices, etc.
To these programs, “beef is beef is beef” - whether it was raised regeneratively or not.
We know this is not the case…
The checkoff programs are another example of the need to build coalitions that pool resources to fight against the massive backing of the mainstream system.
It takes dollars to differentiate…
Fun Stuff:
👍 Mad Ag’s “Meet A Mad Farmer” series is phenomenal (like everything they do)
➡️ Check out the latest with Fitzgerald Organics in Minnesota!!
😎 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!
How did we do today? |
Join the conversation