ep.109: Sourcing Matters with Dan Barber

– guest: Dan Barber

In this series I speak with leaders fighting climate change, biodiversity loss, malnutrition and hunger through a focus on SYSTEMS CHANGE. Tune-in for a dose of optimism.

Dan Barber

BLUE HILL RESTAURANT & FARM

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Collective Consciousness

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CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE: the 6-part miniseries >>

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ep. 109: Dan Barber of Blue Hill

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Q: Can our hedonistic self ignite a collective good?

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BUILDING A COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

w/ host: Aaron Niederhelman

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In a far-reaching 40 minute conversation, chef, advocate, writer and businessman Dan Barber joins host Aaron Niederhelman to discuss the future of food and production.  From alternative proteins, the environmental brass-tacks of regenerative, how seeds rule the way we use the world, the mission of a well suited regional food system and the potential to stabilize the planet by tapping into our hedonistic self – it all gets airtime.

So, tune-in and be empowered to partake in a global movement that only asks of you to feed your pleasures, vanity and soul some super-delicious, healthy and responsible real foods. That’s how we save the planet and each other!

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“What we need is a food system that is an engine for the improvement of ecological systems and the environment. Having to sacrifice the health of the environment for food production is a false choice.” – ep. 109 guest, Dan Barber

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Hear Dan’s 2-minute take on alternative meats ↑

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Smooth like Butter Margarine

The dialogue begins by evaluating the current state of alternative meats. You see, sales of alternative proteins reached $7 billion last year. The market value is predicted to hit $25 bl. by 2030. The cultured and lab-grown arena is obviously big business with a lot of capital behind it, but come on! Are these growth expectations realistic? Are new folks really buying it?! Based on what we know now, can the trend be sustained? And, should it?!

Comparing it to the adoption of the butter-alternative margarine by cutting-edge families of the 1970s, Barber says that current day consumers of animal protein alternatives have been given equal parts false hope, and false advertising. He explains, “It’s a technology that supposedly does it better than how nature does it!”

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Hedonism Spawns Greater Consciousness

tapping into the

PLEASURE

PRINCIPLE

When asked what it’ll take to create real change in food, Dan says that it’s all about deliciousness.

“The practices that produce the best environmental conditions – are the same practices that produce the most delicious, hedonistic food experiences,” explains Barber.

The more you look into food systems – the more layers, reasons and rationale for change that you’ll find. For some of you eco-warriors who are just tuning in – check this out – the environmental food movement isn’t just for vegetarians and vegans anymore. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Pastured ruminants (hoofed herbivores) are the most elegant approach on the board to balance complex energy, nutrient and carbon cycles found in food production. Hey, even anti-meat agencies & NGOs are now stating that, “it’s not the cow, it’s the how.”

Barber continues: “We will have to make sure that whatever we put in our mouth is an agricultural product that won’t degrade the environment, but instead improve it! Part of that is eating meat. If you are eating grass-fed meat from a cow that was truly raised on pasture, than you’re erasing the carbon footprint of the animal. You are eating net-positive. You’re not just doing less bad to the earth, you’re improving the environmental function of pastureland and the ecosystem.”

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Row 7 Seed – honeynut squash – photo credit: Johnny Autry

Seeds Determine How the World is Used

Conventional agriculture has long-since used breeding and genetic modifications to optimize seeds for intervention. Effectively, these are seeds that marry with treatments to address problems which arise only when managing large plots of monoculture crops. The impact and environmental degradation of this conventional seed playbook is well past an unsustainable threshold. And, the proliferation this approach has been so successful that we’ve reached a point in which how we grow food from these conventional seeds determines how the planet is being used.

Today, the molecular scalpel of modern seed science can eliminate many of the environmental & human health externalities tied to this conventional production. Consumers seem interested in the change, the industry is evolving to a biological toolkit to adapt, and the appetite of big food has been whet. Is it progress?! Well, maybe?!

Barber thinks that we need to look at it all differently. Tapping into that pleasure principle found in us all, he says that once again change will come down to deliciousness of food. As an example of how to leverage this hedonism and drive change through focus on taste over treatment or shelf-life, Dan shares the development story of the Row 7 honeynut squash. If that’s the future of organic & non-GMO – sign us up!

“Seeds have been bred for yield; bred for shelf-life; and they’ve been bred for long-distance travel – because our food travels thousands of miles. Flavor was not one of the criteria used for picking when to propagate a seed.”

Dan Barber

A Hope & Potential for Generations Next

“I’m pretty much a cynic through & through, but I tend to be an optimist when it comes to genZ & millennials. They know their stuff, and the bullshit quotient is very high,” Barber describing his lens on the future of the food & environmental movement.

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feeding the planet ✔️

employing communities ✔️

stabilizing the climate ✔️

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Regional Food Will Again Have Its Day

“I do think that in light of COVID, and in light of some of the distribution challenges faced over the past couple years, that a regional food system is going to become more and more prevalent. To me, it’s deliciousness, it’s healthcare and it’s more responsible to the environment,” says chef, activist, author and businessman Dan Barber.

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Tune-in for more with this icon of the good food movement.

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Kingfish: Dan Barber

Dan Barber is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and the author of The Third Plate (2014). He opened Blue Hill restaurant with family members David and Laureen Barber in May of 2000 and two years later he was named one of the country’s “Best New Chefs” by Food and Wine magazine. Since, he has been addressing food issues through op-eds in The New York Times and articles in Gourmet, Saveur, and Food and Wine. Dan has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, The New Yorker and Martha Stewart Living. 

Appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, Dan continues the work that he began as a member of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture’s board of directors: to blur the line between the dining experience and the educational, bringing the principles of good farming directly to the table. Barber has received multiple James Beard awards including Best Chef: New York City (2006) and the country’s Outstanding Chef (2009). In 2009 he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

@DanBarber

@BlueHilllFarm

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Collective Consciousness

DAN BARBER

BLUE HILL & STONE BARNS

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As part of the Core Food Systems Change series, in this episode you’ll hear that when we’re empowered as eaters to become the solution – good things will happen.

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now available: tune-in to the full conversation with Dan and Aaron

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photo credit:  Melissa DiPalma || EATER || Blue Hill || Johnny Autry

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the rich & lasting benefits of:

CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE – content series

The thing is… all sorts of folks will be embracing the values gained from good food and its production. Good food is simply an investment in your own personal health and performance. It’s also a venue to take real climate action in every bite, and a daily dose of benevolence for the folks that keep us well. Good food is a boom-town innovation economy that’s ripening to become invasive throughout verticals and global marketplaces. That’ll begin as more local jobs, and with regional food security.

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for complete series catalog CLICK >>

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ep.108: Repurposing Agricultural Subsidies -ft. Todd Barker

– guest: Todd Barker –

In this series I speak with leaders fighting climate change, biodiversity loss, malnutrition and hunger through a focus on SYSTEMS CHANGE. Tune-in for a dose of optimism.

Subsidies with Favorable Outcomes

-ft. TODD BARKER

CEO of Meridian Institute

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CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE: the 6-part miniseries >>

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ep. 108: Todd Barker – Chief Executive of Meridian Institute

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ep.108: ‘Repurposing Subsidies for Favorable Outcomes’

Host: Aaron Niederhelman
Guest: Todd Barker of Meridian Institute

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Favorable Outcomes

In this episode you’ll hear that when subsidies are dolled out based on positive outcomes instead of crop type – good things happen. 

You see, according to a Sept 2021 UN FAO briefing, agriculture contributes a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, 70% of biodiversity loss and 80% of deforestation across the globe. And, it’s also true that nearly 90% of the $540bn in global subsidies given to farmers every year are “harmful.” It’s true that the majority of well-intentioned agricultural support now damages human health, exacerbates the climate crisis, dwindles nature and drives inequality by excluding smallholder farmers. For real food systems change – support needs to be better aligned with favorable outcomes.

To learn more about this whole ball of wax we connected with Meridian Institute CEO Todd Barker on the myriad ways that the organization is bringing together stakeholders in the U.S. and around the world to take action.

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Incentivizing Collaborative Efforts

multi-

STAKEHOLDER

CHANGE

“Interest in food systems has never been greater. As challenging and controversial as the problems are, we at Meridian are seeing that while issues about partisanship, polarization, and conflict are capturing media headlines – the hunger for collaborative solutions to these problems has never been higher,” explains episode 108 guest Todd Barker.

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A Novel Angle at US Crop Insurance

The AGree Economic and Environmental Risk Coalition (AGree E2 Coalition) advocates for federal policy improvements to drive broader adoption of conservation practices on working lands. Conservation practices such as cover crops, no-till, and other recognized good farming practices can reduce farm risk to extreme weather events while improving environmental outcomes and soil health. Meridian Institute launched the AGree Initiative more than 10 years ago after more than two years of collaboration with a diverse group of food and agriculture stakeholders.

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“The risk reduction benefits of agricultural conservation practices were not being adequately represented in the federal crop insurance programs. We wanted to focus on the crop insurance program. Our objective was to find ways for farmers to be supported not by crop, but instead for outcome measures like improved soil health, enhanced biodiversity, and climate mitigation.”

– Todd Barker, CEO Meridian Institute

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ep. 108: AUDIOGRAM – 90 sec. video short

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Multi-Stakeholder Initiative (MSI) Juggernaut

Meridian is a mission-driven, nonprofit consultancy that has helped clients and partners develop and implement solutions to complicated, often controversial problems—big and small, global and local—for over two decades. They do it with an innovative approach that brings together a deep understanding of the issues at hand, as well as the people, politics, and power dynamics that surround them. Meridian not only shapes meaningful consensus and action in the near term, but also builds partners’ capacity for cooperation that often continues for years, even decades.

“We bring our skills to bear on a diverse range of issues, including environment & natural resources, climate change, agriculture & food systems, forests, health, oceans & coasts, resilience, science & technology, and water. Across issues, boundaries, and systems, our work is a catalyst for powerful impact.”

Todd Barker – CEO of Meridian Institute

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Finding Common Goals to Drive Change

The Meridian Institute offers five key services: collaboration, implementation, strategy, research, and philanthropic support. Meridian has a dedicated team of 80 experts and an ability to foster constructive discussions, manage decisions, and support actions that shape the world for the better.

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feeding the planet ✔️

employing communities ✔️

stabilizing the climate ✔️

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“There’s growing interest in a global treaty for Ocean plastics pollution. Think about it as the Paris Agreement for plastics. We have now brought together over 500 stockholders in six countries to get a jump start on developing national action plans,” Barker describes Meridian’s role in fighting against ocean plastic pollution.

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facilitating change: Todd Barker

Todd Barker is CEO of Meridian. He currently leads projects that focus on agriculture, food systems, water, climate, big data, and clean energy. A highlight of his over 20 year tenure at Meridian has been the AGree Initiative, which successfully advocated and lobbied for changes in the 2018 farm bill that support soil health. He also has extensive international experience, including current work with the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.

Todd cut his teeth as a mediator, facilitator, and strategist over 20 years ago, working on the cleanup of Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility. He is a trusted advisor to foundations and funder collaboratives working on agriculture and food systems. He serves on the board of the DendriFund and chairs the board for the Clean Energy Group.

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–@MeridOrg

@TFBarker

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Subsidies with Favorable Outcomes

TODD BARKER

Meridian Institute

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As part of the Core Food Systems Change series, in this episode you’ll hear that when subsidies are dolled out based on positive outcomes instead of crop type – good things will happen. We all have more resources to fuel a movement.

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social media tile

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Listen-in to the full conversation with Todd and Aaron as they discuss ag. subsidies.

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photo credit:  Melissa DiPalma || Meridian Institute || Bryan Liscinsky

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the rich & lasting benefits of:

CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE – content series

The thing is… all sorts of folks will be embracing the values gained from good food and its production. Good food is simply an investment in your own personal health and performance. It’s also a venue to take real climate action in every bite, and a daily dose of benevolence for the folks that keep us well. Good food is a boom-town innovation economy that’s ripening to become invasive throughout verticals and global marketplaces. That’ll begin as more local jobs, and with regional food security.

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for complete series catalog CLICK >>

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ep.107: Animal Centric Agriculture – ft. Øistein Thorsen

– guest: Øistein Thorsen

In this series I speak with leaders fighting climate change, biodiversity loss, malnutrition and hunger through a focus on SYSTEMS CHANGE. Tune-in for a dose of optimism.

Scaling-up Meat Production Knowhow

-ft. ØISTEIN THORSEN

CEO of FAI Farms

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CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE: the 6-part miniseries >>

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ep. 107: Øistein Thorsen – CEO, FAI Farms

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ep.107: ‘ANIMAL CENTRIC MEAT PRODUCTION’

Host: Aaron Niederhelman
Guest: Øistein Thorsen of FAI Farms

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Did you know that across the globe we process 70,000,000,000 (billion) land animals every year?! That includes nine billion food animals each yr. in the U.S. alone. And yet, it’s still difficult to find good meat! That’s so out of sync with where consumer trends are headed. Why isn’t better meat more of the norm? Elevating practices to reap the benefits at market is very feasible in (better quality) meat production. In this episode we hear more from upstart leader Øistein Thorsen of FAI Farms about the opportunities there are for evolving production practice and scaling supply of better quality animal proteins.

With some tweaks and strategic investments into the well-being of the animal producing meat, fish, eggs and dairy – FAI thwarts impending supply chain concerns for big food companies while aligning with buying behaviors of contemporary consumer interests. As insurance & marketing tilth – it’s a no-brainer for these food companies with large scale needs. Investments that will benefit the eater, the producer, the environment and the planet all by improving farm animal qualify of life.

– Øistein Thorsen, CEO of FAI Farms

“Animal welfare is ground zero for food systems change.”

Based out of Oxford, U.K., for twenty years the Food Animal Initiative (FAI) has been developing systems that improve the supply chains of big food companies through investments into the well-being of the food animal. Rich in knowledge and deep in insight, they’ve honed “animal-centric” operating models for each food animal category.

As you’ll hear from Øistein, more commitments to elevate production practice in meat, dairy, farmed fish and eggs is is a tent post in repairing the broader broken food systems. And, since new growth in conventional meat and animal protein production proves more unsustainable with each passing year, the notion that this old system can manage more production load on top of the current through-put just seems irresponsible to plan around. Right?! Thorsen argues that the market opportunity for pushing the holistic view of personal well-being, planetary stability, and benevolence has a pinnacle in meat production. So, is the well-being of food animals the foundation for large scale food systems change? #Tunein to get more on that from Øistein.

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Getting us to Animal Centric Meat Production

HOLISTIC

ANIMAL

AGRICULTURE

The reality is that people are going to eat meat in the future. A lot of it. And as new folks adopt western lifestyles, a lot more of it. In fact, experts say that 2050 demand for animal proteins will increase by 70%.

Can you imagine what 2/3s more load will do to the current impact of conventional meat? Leaders have arisen with new approaches to raise food animals and produce enough protein to meet this increased demand – while still respecting planetary boundaries, and tapping into those current POVs.

Øistein Thorsen of FAI Farms is one of these upstart pioneers that’s instigating a values-based food system through focus on improving in the health and well-being of food animals. In our conversation Thorsen explains the approach as “Animal Centric Meat Production”. He describes it this way, “to keep a shrinking planet fed and nourished for decades to come – it all begins with respecting the food animal today.”

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Animal-Centric Food Systems in the Future

The French expression Noblesse Oblige translates to “nobility obliges”. It effectively means that with power and privilege then we’re obligated to look out for others and a shared surroundings. Thorsen tells us that a bit more respect is needed here for the animals that sustain us. To clean-up the food system, this animal-centric mantra actually taps that obligation that is seeded in us all, while also fueling actions of consumer empowerment that will help sway consumer behaviors.

Something like – knowing how we manage sentient animals that produce meat, eggs, and dairy will evolve everything about the food system – because we become more empowered eaters with a deeper connection to our food. The well-being of animals and our connection to nature is central. Animal Centric food production may be what scratches a primal itch to do better for all, including those that sustain us. We’re indebted.

Q: How much of the holistic continuum impacts your current food buying decisions?

Q: Will you evolve your behavior if you knew of the direct impact?

Q: Are you obligated?

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ep. 107: AUDIOGRAM – 90 sec. video short

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As we hear from Øistein, not only is this evolution the ethical thing to do, but the reality is the resulting food products are significantly better for you and your surroundings than anything coming from conventional streams. In fact, according to Thorsen – this good meat, dairy and eggs from healthy animals living in more natural environments is better than anything coming to market – especially all this newly concocted lab-grown protein derived from processed and artificial means. We need better meat and less of it.

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Despite all the buzz behind those plant-based / lab-grown proteins, or new noise from conventional climate-friendly propaganda – the only silver-bullet solution to big global problems like malnutrition, hunger, supply-chain disruption and even climate instability comes from doing a better job shepherding the regenerative natural resources underpinning the production of our food. So, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater; it’s not the cow that’s the problem, but the how we raise the cow for dairy and meat. Let’s start there. “It has mutually beneficial outcomes in which all stakeholders win,” explains Thorsen.

“I have not seen a lot of examples where something starts as a niche (elevated standard) certification and becomes mainstream.

We have the need to look at some alternative playbooks that will change the approach from the ground-up.”

Øistein Thorsen CEO of FAI Farms

A Holistic Approach to Producing Good Meat

Farm Animal Initiative (FAI) Farms was founded in 2001 at the Oxford University farm estate. 20 years later they remain a ground-breaking research and advisory firm on a mission to help the food sector overcome key challenges and implement better practices on land and at sea. Utilizing their “3E” (Economic, Environmental, Ethical) approach, FAI works with farmers and many of the world’s largest food companies to implement practical solutions for climate and food security concerns in a contemporary world.

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The Growing Footprint of Animal Centric

A purpose driven company committed to providing solutions to climate and food security, FAI offers services led by science, data, and the practice of holistic food production. FAI’s world leading multi-disciplinary team work in partnership with major food brands to create a high welfare, equitable and regenerative food system. FAI is headquartered in Oxford, UK, with representation in the USA, Norway, Brazil, New Zealand and partners in China.

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feeding the planet ✔️

employing communities ✔️

stabilizing the climate ✔️

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next generation food production pioneer: Øistein Thorsen

As CEO of FAI, Øistein is responsible for the company’s growth and impact strategy, and new business development. He joined FAI in 2012, working with global partners including IKEA, Ferrero, McDonald’s and KFC, before leading the company through an MBO in August 2020.

Øistein grew up in shuttle between Sudan, Norway, and Ethiopia. He holds an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a BA in African Studies and Development Studies from SOAS. Before joining FAI he followed in his parents’ footprints pursuing a career in international development. He worked for VSO and Oxfam, focusing on community engagement, global agricultural trade policy, and humanitarian advocacy at the United Nations.

Thorsen is the associate producer of “Black Gold”, a Sundance Film Festival feature-documentary film about coffee growers in Ethiopia’s place in the global coffee market.

Øistein lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.

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DO YOUR PART: Stabilize the Planet by Investing in Animal Centric Agriculture

With the huge uptick in global consumption of proteins over the next few decades, current conventional practice and cutting-edge tech will only continue to send natural systems out of whack. When scaled with proper knowhow, Animal Centric agriculture food solutions can have positive and lasting impact on the planet and all of its inhabitants. We learn that when animals are put in the middle and given due respect throughout food production – it becomes the tent pole to build the new food system, to return to natural order, and to benefit each involved party. Starting with the quality of life of the food animals themselves.

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Twitter: @FAIFarms

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Listen-in to the full conversation with Øistein and Aaron as they discuss what it’ll take to achieve change in meat through becoming animal centric in our production.

As part of the Core Food Systems Change series, in this episode you’ll hear that when Animal Centric Agriculture becomes part of our collective consciousness it’s the best opportunity that we’ve got for a stable future.

photo credit:  Melissa DiPalma & FAI Farms

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the rich & lasting benefits of:

CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE – content series

The thing is… all sorts of folks will be embracing the values gained from good food and its production. Good food is simply an investment in your own personal health and performance. It’s also a venue to take real climate action in every bite, and a daily dose of benevolence for the folks that keep us well. Good food is a boom-town innovation economy that’s ripening to become invasive throughout verticals and global marketplaces. That’ll begin as more local jobs, and with regional food security.

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for complete series catalog CLICK >>

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ep.106: The Standard Bearer for Favorable Seas -ft. Rupert Howes

– guest: Rupert Howes –

In this series I speak with leaders fighting climate change, biodiversity loss, malnutrition and hunger through a focus on SYSTEMS CHANGE. Tune-in for a dose of optimism.

STANDARD BEARER FOR THE SEA

-ft. RUPERT HOWES

CEO OF MARINE STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL

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CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE: the 6-part miniseries >>

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ep. 106: Rupert Howes – CEO, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)

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ep.106: ‘STANDARD BEARER FOR THE SEA’

Host: Aaron Niederhelman
Guest: Rupert Howes of MSC

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Rupert Howes explains it this way,“MSC is the standard setter. We have no ability whatsoever to influence the outcome of an independent certification.. That’s done by an independently accredited certifier. The science is independently peer-reviewed. There’s an independent objections process. We (MSC) have no financial interest or ability to influence any of that. The only time we generate an income, is if the market chooses. Once a fishery is certified, once the entire supply chain has a chain of custody audit, only then do we generate a modest fee for use of the MSC logo in the marketplace.”

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Sustainable Seafood from Stable Seas

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SEAFOOD

STANDARDS

HOLDER

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a global, independent non-profit organization which sets a standard for sustainable fishing. MSC works with partners in an effort to make the world’s seafood markets sustainable. With credible standards for sustainable fishing and seafood traceability MSC seeks to increase the availability of certified seafood. The organization’s distinctive blue ecolabel recognized by consumers as the sustainable option.

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MSC’s vision is of the world’s oceans teeming with life, and seafood supplies safeguarded for this and future generations. MSC collaborates with fishers, retailers, processors, consumers, and others to drive change forward. They never compromise on the standards. MSC leads the world in wild capture fishery certification, with the most trusted, recognized, and credible seafood ecolabel.

(SKOLL FOUNDATION PROFILE)

“The brutal reality is, we have too many boats chasing too little fish to meet growing demand.”

Rupert Howes, CEO of MSC
ep. 106: AUDIOGRAM – 90 sec. video short

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Rigorous Objectives Build Favorable Seas

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Standard defines fishery sustainability on the basis of the guidelines of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) code of conduct for responsible fisheries, and strives to incorporate internationally-established best practice and best available science.

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What’s behind the MSC ecolabel

The Fishery Standard requirements focus on three principles: healthy target stock status; mitigation of environmental impacts; and effective management. In order to achieve and maintain certification fisheries may have to reduce fishing effort, establish new harvest strategies, mitigate fishing impacts on vulnerable species, habitats and ecosystems, change governance or policy practices, or define fishery-specific management.

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feeding half the planet ✔️

employing communities ✔️

stabilizing the oceans ✔️

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Nearly two decades at the helm: Rupert Howes

From an early age, Rupert Howes was passionate about nature. Influenced by conservationists like David Attenborough, he was determined to make the world more sustainable. Although he ultimately became an economist instead of a marine biologist, he never strayed from his childhood passion.

He worked with environmental organizations, wrote a book on motivating industries to improve environmental performance and championed corporate responsibility. In 2004, he became CEO of Marine Stewardship Council.

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Rupert has been internationally recognized for his work to promote sustainable fishing practices. In 2014, Rupert was awarded a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Award, which recognizes leaders in sustainable social innovation. In 2009, he received the World Wildlife Foundation’s “Leaders for a Living Planet” Award, which recognizes individuals who make a significant personal contribution to the conservation of the natural world and sustainable development. He also received a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2007 for his contributions in establishing the MSC as the world’s leading fishery certification and ecolabelling program.

(SKOLL FOUNDATION PROFILE)

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@MSCecolabel

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Listen-in to the full conversation with Rupert and Aaron as they discuss how we can achieve smarter ocean management and proper fisheries management.

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photo credit:  Marine Stewardship Council

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the rich & lasting benefits of:

CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE – content series

The thing is… all sorts of folks will be embracing the values gained from good food and its production. Good food is simply an investment in your own personal health and performance. It’s also a venue to take real climate action in every bite, and a daily dose of benevolence for the folks that keep us well. Good food is a boom-town innovation economy that’s ripening to become invasive throughout verticals and global marketplaces. That’ll begin as more local jobs, and with regional food security.

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for complete series catalog CLICK >>

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ep.105: Regenerative Ocean Farming -ft. Bri Warner & Chris Sherman

– guests: Bri Warner & Chris Sherman –

In this series I speak with leaders fighting climate change, biodiversity loss, malnutrition and hunger through a focus on SYSTEMS CHANGE. Tune-in for a dose of optimism.

REGENERATIVE OCEAN FARMING

BRI WARNER

CHRIS SHERMAN

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CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE: the 6-part miniseries >>

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ep. 105: Bri Warner & Chris Sherman – Regenerative Ocean Farming

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EPISODE 105: ‘Regenerative Ocean Farming’

Host: Aaron Niederhelman
Guest: Bri Warner, CEO & Pres. @ Atlantic Sea Farms
Guest: Chris Sherman, CEO @ Island Creek Oysters

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This latest episode is about how to re-build a food system that creates quality sustenance for people, new jobs on working waterfronts and healthier oceans through the adoption of smarter management practices on regenerative ocean farms. Regenerative ocean farming is an aquatic farming system that grows seaweed and shellfish on no inputs. As is the case with terrestrial production, aquatic regen farming is all about investing in the ecological health of an ecosystem to create good food.

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ep. 105: AUDIOGRAM – 90 sec. short – Bri Warner

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Regenerative Ocean Aquaculture

US seaweed pioneer Bri Warner shares in her experience of having to make a compelling business case for kelp production in coastal communities in Maine. Ahead of the curve, Warner has leveraged some creative methods and core business fundamentals to establish a whole new kind of values-based food production company. We discover that what she’s producing actually has a pretty unfair advantage in catching the eye of contemporary consumers over almost everything else in the food value chain.

“The three best foods that you can eat on the planet are (regenerative) aquaculture mussels, oysters and kelp. We’re all removing carbon from the water. We’re all doing this with zero arable land. Zero freshwater. Zero pesticides. The fact is, these three products grow more efficiently than any terrestrial food, especially any terrestrial food animal protein out there. What we can honestly say about these aquaculture products is that they’re actually making the planet better,” explains Warner – CEO & President of Atlantic Sea Farms.

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feeding neighbors ✔️

employing communities ✔️

stabilizing the planet ✔️

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CHRIS SHERMAN

Island Creek Oysters (ICO) is a vertically integrated Regenerative Ocean Farming success story. They grow out their own oyster seed; they produce feedstuff algae to raise oysters; they sell that seed to other growers; they operate their own farms that grow-out seeds from adolescence -to- maturity; they aggregate & distribute mature oysters to diverse retailers and food service relationships – including their own restaurants; they invest in preserving and improving the marine ecological systems that grow their crops; they offer an experience for anyone to share-in the stories of their food with the community that produced it.

“Through its benefit for the economy. The social, cultural and gastronomic benefits that we all get, and all of the nutritional values this seafood offers. And, the environmental gain – which gets at the concept of adding value back into the ecosystem from which we depend on to produce good food. This all culminates in us supporting the concept of ‘coastal communities’, which is core to our mission and values at Island Creek Oysters,” says Chris Sherman – ICO CEO and Eisenhower Fellow.

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ep. 105: AUDIOGRAM – 90 sec. short – Chris Sherman

“We’ve built incredible demand for kelp, but we’re doing something completely new here for US markets.”

BRI WARNER, CEO & PRESIDENT @ ATLANTIC SEA FARMS

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How Regen Business Backs The Planet

As for environmental restoration, oysters grown not for consumption have become part of the equation for producers like ICO. Each mollusk can filter up-to 50 gallons of seawater a day, oysters bond together to create natural reefs that protect shorelines and cities, and these shellfish act as great neighbors in estuaries to keep oceans thriving with other keystone species and biodiversity. Sherman explains how they support NGO-backed restoration projects through a few different channels. But always interested in pushing the envelope, Sherman is evaluating how the farms can work in lockstep with restoration projects to instigate more environmental action for the industry.

“We harness the power of private industry and profit to scale environmental impact. One of the things that we focus on is validating some of the claims that we make as an industry about the positive impacts of commercial farms. The questions that we’re trying to answer include: How do farms stack up to natural oyster reefs? How do farms compare to synthetic reefs brought online in restoration projects? How do we optimize nitrogen removal, and deliver habitat creation? Through scientific methods, we’re on a path to quantify the ecosystem value of commercial shellfish farms,” explains Sherman.

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An Innovation Economy Supporting Community

BRI WARNER

Warner has built a creative business model that employs Maine lobsterman as her production team of this line-grown kelp coming from the clean, cold waters of the North Atlantic. With over 4000 boats working in the Maine lobster industry, Bri sees kelp production as a mutually beneficial relationship that offers existing boat owners a new revenue stream without requiring additional equipment or extensive operating expenses.

The approach has been so successful that when Warner first took over as CEO of Atlantic Sea farms in 2018 the company was sourcing 30,000 lbs. of seaweed a year. Now, after building-out the required processing infrastructure, finding new markets ripe for this next super-food, and via that creative approach to employ a lobstermen workforce in their off-season – Atlantic Sea Farms will harvest 1.2 Million lbs. of human-grade kelp this year alone. With plenty of capacity to grow. As we’ve seen in our stories before, there are many creative ideas generating on the innovation economies of Regen farms.

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hear how Regen Ocean Farming shapes collective consciousness

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Listen-in to the full conversation with Bri, Chris, and Aaron as they discuss how we can achieve good for the people and planet through smarter ocean management on regenerative ocean farms.

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@IslandCreek

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photo credit:  Island Creek Oysters & Atlantic Sea Farms

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the rich & lasting benefits of:

CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE – content series

The thing is… all sorts of folks will be embracing the values gained from good food and its production. Good food is simply an investment in your own personal health and performance. It’s also a venue to take real climate action in every bite, and a daily dose of benevolence for the folks that keep us well. Good food is a boom-town innovation economy that’s ripening to become invasive throughout verticals and global marketplaces. That’ll begin as more local jobs, and with regional food security.

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COMPLETE SERIES >> CLICK

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ep.104: Controlled Environment Ag -ft. Jonathan Webb

– guest: Jonathan Webb –

In this series I speak with leaders fighting climate change, biodiversity loss, malnutrition and hunger through a focus on SYSTEMS CHANGE. Tune-in for a dose of optimism.

JONATHAN WEBB

CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE

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CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE: the 6-part miniseries >>

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ep. 104: Jonathan Webb – where tech embraces nature in controlled growing environments

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“To feed the population of 2050 we’ll need to grow more food than we have in the entire history of agriculture. That’s what keeps me up at night. That’s a need for more food than the previous 10,000 years of human food production combined,” says Jonathan Webb.

A Kentucky native, Webb first made a name for himself in building-out clean energy infrastructure throughout Appalachia. With starting AppHarvest, Webb returned to his Blue-Grass home-state-roots to create a large-scale, state-of-the-art, value-based food production operation that is truly disrupting the apple cart. TuneIn to ep. 104 to learn about the many benefits that AppHarvest is finding in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA).

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ep. 104: AUDIOGRAM – 90 sec. video short

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feeding neighbors ✔️

employing communities ✔️

stabilizing the planet ✔️

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With a consistent supply of fresh quality produce, Webb and AppHarvest make inroads within food supply chains. AppHarvest utilizes proven Dutch solutions for large-scale horizontal glass-house production farms to service growing consumer demand for more local fruits & veg. In fact, through affiliations, partnerships and ambassadors – AppHarvest is making headway for the entire CEA industry. Working on both Main Street and Wall Street, the company will have all the capacity that it needs to become real competition to fresh and frozen produce across the US.

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“We need to be looking around the world for where the best ideas are coming from.  The challenge in front of us can be scary at times, but that challenge is the opportunity.   It’s an opportunity for a world where nature meets technology in how we feed ourselves. 

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We’re doing this in Appalachia now – in the region where I’m from – through controlled environment agriculture, at scale.”  

JONATHAN WEBB – CEO & Founder, AppHarvest

New Expectations for the Salad Plate & Fruit Bowl

Something that I found especially insightful from Jonathan was his take on regional food systems. He draws-upon an analogy of shipping coal to spawn progress. Citing how cities in his region first began to thrive thanks to the innovative supply chain that sourced consistent coal-energy from the hills of Kentucky.

After years of learning about decentralized energy production in the solar industry, Webb leveraged his skill-set to build out large-scale infrastructure and establish a company that sources good food, at scale, across his region. Funny enough, it’s once again all about a consistent source of ‘energy-units’ to make these cities thrive and prosper once again. Now coming in the form of a delicious vine-ripped tomato.

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So, look out fellow patriots on both sides of the aisle – you’re about to experience a whole new kind of Green-Energy-Revolution coming straight out of coal-country. A revolution that will feed neighbors, employ communities and have a net positive impact on the planet. It’s CEA, and it’s a CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE in food production that borrows from the best that tech and nature have to offer.

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Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)

Once a regional market has been saturated with all kinds of good veg & fruits grown under glass – AppHarvest will expand its footprint. Then, grow into new regions. The Controlled Environment Ag glass-house model that AppHavest has established can become a turn-key scalable solution that will grow more good food for diverse regions across the United States for decades to come.

For the investors interested in this, new footprints can made available anywhere there’s a market ripe with new consumer expectations. That’s everywhere! From what we learn from Webb, the positive impacts of this better quality, healthier, fresher, smarter, and safer foods can be (and should be) enjoyed by everyone.

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In this 45 min chat, you’ll learn what AppHarvest is doing now to begin to ‘Fight the good Food Fight‘.

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@AppHarvest

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photo credit:  AppHarvest & eatingwell

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the rich & lasting benefits of:

CORE SYSTEMS CHANGE – content series

The thing is… all sorts of folks will be embracing the values gained from good food and its production. Good food is simply an investment in your own personal health and performance. It’s also a venue to take real climate action in every bite, and a daily dose of benevolence for the folks that keep us well. Good food is a boom-town innovation economy that’s ripening to become invasive throughout verticals and global marketplaces. That’ll begin as more local jobs, and with regional food security.

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for related discussions CLICK >>

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