Food constitutes the most intimate relationship between us and nature. Though the food that we eat now can be almost called unnatural. Yes, it is full of calories but very poor in nutrients. And we can just imagine what effect has this unnatural food on our health. The way this food is produced has a huge negative effect on nature, climate and biodiversity. Luckily, solutions exist.
Today, I am talking to an amazing woman, an entrepreneur who was curious to ask questions about the way her supply products were produced. After digging deeper into the problem, she found a new business opportunity and launched a company that benefits people, both consumers and producers, but also nature and biodiversity.
And that’s what we are going to talk today about: how food can be good for you and for nature. We also touch upon financing issues for regenerative agriculture and insetting credits (not to be confused with carbon offsetting credit).
Marcela Flores is a founder of Tierra Foods company that is inspired by the indigenous knowledge to produce highly nutritious food while also reducing carbon emissions, restoring biodiversity and valuing local communities.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcela-flores-98547223/
Book recommendations from the Episode:
Isabella Tree “Wilding” and Jim Collins “From Good to Great”
1:50 – How it all started. Growing business from the kitchen
3:30 – First realizations of how food is grown
4:00 – Alternative options to grow food
5:30 – What regenerative agriculture is
6:00 – Problems with the current agriculture practices
13:30 – Windscreen effect
14:30 – Value of the insects
16:10 – High concern about the environmental problems but hope is present
17:12 – Success of the concerted effort to solve ozone layer problem
18:10 – Tierra Foods’ approach helps reverse biodiversity loss
19:02 – Trees create rain: the magic of nature
19:50 – Tierra Foods’ business model. Agroforestry is key
21:00 – Natural carbon absorption capacity of nut bread trees (Brosimum Alicastrum)
21:50 – Edible nutritious seeds from the trees
23:15 – Reforestation with maximum benefits
23:50 – Scientific approach to measure and reporting nature and climate benefits
24:18 – Carbon insets
25:10 – Helping companies to reduce emissions from their supply chain
26:20 – Carbon insets vs carbon offsets
27:29 – What about biodiversity credits?
28:00 – Bio-economy: Working with living forests and indigenous people
29:30 – Just pay and decent work for people
30:54 – Getting inspired from indigenous people
33:47 – Collaboration with academics
34:31 – Uptake by large food corporations of the proposed solution
36:00 – Low-carbon transition: learning by doing and by failing
37:39 – Science-based targets for companies
42:18 – Beware greenwashing
46:40 – The role of finance
47:10 – Regenerative agriculture neither riskier nor more expensive but it takes time for transition
48:20 – Need for blended finance to support the transition
52:20 – Personal vs corporate responsibility
55:10 – Venture capital seeks quick money and not suited to finance the transition
57:20 – Struggles of a female entrepreneur
1:00:20 – Two most inspiring books: Isabella Tree “Wilding” and Jim Collins “From Good to Great”
New episode is published every second Tuesday. It is available on Google podcasts, Apple podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
Follow me on Instagram
Feel free to share your views, suggestions and critics by writing to me to scgrowpodcast@gmail.com