ReGen Brands Podcast Regen Brands Podcast

On this episode, we have Allie O’Brien who is the Vice President of Marketing at Harmless Harvest.
 
Harmless Harvest is supporting regenerative agriculture with its Regenerative Organic Certified® coconut supply chain which is now making its way into label claims across their product portfolio.
 
In this episode, we learn about Harmless’ unique supply chain in Thailand sourcing the nam hom coconut, their work implementing regenerative practices on the ground through their ReCAP program, how their regenerative organic sourcing is coming to life in product marketing today and in the future, plus the support their receiving from their parent company, Danone.
 
Get your notepads out folks because Allie was dropping knowledge on this episode. It was super interesting and informative to have our first VP of Marketing on the show and Allie went in-depth on all things related to creating meaningful marketing strategies for regenerative claims whether we’re talking certifications, packaging design, claims hierarchy, pricing architecture, in-store promotion, channel-specific execution and so much more.
 
Episode Highlights:
 
🩷 What makes their coconut water pink + unique?
🥥 Why they only use nom ham coconuts
🌴 Canal-based, smallholder coconut farms in Thailand
😮 Why there’s no organic premium for their partner farmers
🤝 Creating the ReCAP program to increase regen ag adoption
💰 How Danone is supporting their regen work
🥤 Bringing regenerative claims to their bottles
🎯 Why regen is about retention and not purchase
👍 How retailers and certifiers can boost consumer education
🤩 “It’s the right thing to do AND better for business”
 
Links:
Harmless Harvest
Harmless Harvest’s Regenerative Agriculture
Harmless Harvest's 2023 Impact Report
Harmless Harvest’s ReCAP Program
Danone
Danone Ecosystem Fund
Regenerative Organic Certified®B-Corp
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On this episode, we have Alison Czeczuga and Zach West from Gaia Herbs. Alison serves as the Director of Social Impact and Sustainability while Zach serves as the Farm Operations Manager.
 
Gaia Herbs is supporting regenerative agriculture with their 250-acre Regenerative Organic Certified® farm in North Carolina and their more than 200+ SKUs that contain various Regenerative Organic Certified® ingredients.
 
In this episode, we learn how this natural channel supplement leader has developed, implemented, and expanded their regenerative strategy plus how they’re betting that tying regen to product quality and consumer wellness will be a winning commercial strategy.
 
We talked farmworker housing, composting programs, herbal extraction, product label claim challenges and so much more in this one. Tons of insights and of course some good laughs along the way.
 
Episode Highlights:
 
🤯 Integrating regen into their 200+ SKUs
🚜 Their 250-acre Regenerative Organic Certified® farm
🧪 How Gaia’s herbs & botanicals become supplements
🧑‍🌾 Their legendary H-2A visa farmworker crew
🏠 Gaia’s new state-of-the-art farmworker housing
♻️ Upcycling their ‘herbal marc’ into compost
🤔 The challenges of producing fully ROC™ SKUs
🤝 Working with other brands on the Sustainable Herbs Program
🧘 Why tying regen to wellness is the winning strategy
🗣️ How they’re approaching messaging and label claims
 
Links:
Gaia Herbs
Regenerative Organic Certified®
Rodale Institute
H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers
Meet Your Herbs
SXSW
Regenerative Healthcare Conference
B-Corp
Sustainable Herbs Program
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On this episode, we have Dana Ehrlich who is the Founder of Verde Farms.
 
Verde Farms is supporting regenerative agriculture with its lineup of 100% USDA organic and grass-fed and grass-finished beef products. They have recently begun working with Land to Market to transition their supply to fully regenerative and have begun certifying certain SKUs.
 
In this episode, Dana shares the health and tourism journey that led him to South American grass-fed beef plus how they’ve grown the brand over time very unconventionally through private label business and branded sales to conventional and mass retailers.
 
Verde Farms is growing 50% year over year with category-leading velocities and recently took on its first major investment while also transitioning to self-manufacturing.
 
Tons of fun topics in this one on all things CPG plus Dana shares the behind-the-scenes look at getting their farmers to adopt more regenerative practices. Here’s a hint - the incentives have to do with boosting on-farm profitability.
 
Episode Highlights:
 
🔌 Going from semiconductors to CPG
🌍 How health and travel inspired the brand
🏗️ Building supply chain before brand
🤯 Landing their big break with Wegman’s & Costco
🥩 Moving all of their volume over to branded sales
🧑‍🌾 Transitioning their supply chain to regenerative
🤠 Why quicker time to slaughter weight is key for rancher adoption
🎯 Consumer first > Customer first
😯 Pivoting to self-manufacturing right before COVID
🚀 Partnering with Manna Tree to fuel future growth
 
Links:
Verde Farms
The End of Craving
Land to Market™
Pasturebird
Manna Tree Partners
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On this episode, we have Briana Buckles who is the Global Senior Sustainability Manager at Yogi Tea.
 
Yogi Tea is supporting regenerative agriculture with 9 global projects dedicated to increasing regenerative agriculture adoption in the supply chain for their Yogi Tea and Choice Organics brands.
 
Yogi has been around for more than 50 years, produces over 70 SKUs, and sources more than 150 ingredients from over 40 different countries. Their products are stocked across thousands of retailers in North America and Europe. 
 
In this episode, Briana shares her 5-year journey trailblazing new regenerative agriculture initiatives at Yogi and how they are increasing regen ag adoption through a three-pronged supply chain visibility, intervention, and expansion approach. Plus, she shares the details on one of their projects in Rwanda with details on how they select farmers to support, partner with local technical assistance providers, and fund the work itself.
 
Episode Highlights:
 
💫 The original Yogi recipe
🤯 Sourcing 150+ ingredients from 40+ countries
✍️ Building a Sustainability program from scratch
🌍 Their 9 global regen ag projects to date
🔍 Why it all starts with supply chain transparency
🧑‍🌾 Their work with tea farmers in Rwanda
💲 How they think about the ROI of regenerative
😧 The challenges of certifying their complex supply chains
⚙️ How Yogi designs, implements, and funds their regen projects
🤩 Why every supply chain link needs to benefit from regen
 
Links:
Yogi Tea
Yogi Tea’s Annual Sustainability Report
Dr. Bronner’s
Fair Trade Certified
For for Life
FairWild Foundation
Rainforest Alliance
Regenerative Organic Certified
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On this episode, we have Matthieu Kohlmeyer who is the Founder and CEO of La Tourangelle.
 
La Tourangelle is a French-American family-owned & operated culinary oil maker. They’re currently supporting regenerative agriculture with their Regenerative Organic Certified® Sunflower Oil and their soon-to-be-released regenerative olive oil.
 
In this episode, Matthieu shares La Tourangelle’s 20-year history as a CPG brand and 150-year history producing artisan oils, he shares what makes their production and packaging unique from other players in the category, and he also details their future plans to support regenerative agriculture.
 
Matthieu is a wealth of knowledge in all topics oil-related and he was nice enough to weigh in on the current seed oil debates, existing issues with counterfeit oils in the market, and why scaling regen in oil products might look a lot different than other categories.
 
Episode Highlights:
 
🗝️ Artisan oil-making dating back to 1867
🇺🇲 How Matthieu brought the brand to the US
🥫 Why tin packaging is better for the oil and the earth
✨ What makes La Tourangelle’s oils unique?
😦 Current fraud issues in culinary oil manufacturing
♻️ The added upcycling complexity in oil supply chains
🧑‍🌾 Farmer feedback on regenerative & organic
❤️ Why emotion > education for selling food
👀 What’s the truth about seed oils?
👏 Educating kids in their community garden
 
Links:
La Tourangelle
Regenerative Organic Certified® Sunflower Oil
Regenerative Organic Certified®
The Codex Alimentarius
The Dorito Effect
Regenified™
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On this episode, we have Jared Simon who is the CEO at Manitoba Harvest.
 
Manitoba Harvest is North America’s leading hemp food brand, and they’re supporting regenerative agriculture with their recently released Regenerative Organic Certified® Hemp Hearts.
 
In this episode, Jared breaks down how hemp is grown and some of the agronomic differences between conventional, organic, and regenerative organic cultivation. Jared also shares how Manitoba Harvest is developing their commercial strategy around regenerative and what this means for both their branded business and B2B ingredient business.
 
Jared was super engaging and insightful, and we really enjoyed gleaning his insights on how a legacy, scaled brand like Manitoba Harvest starts prioritizing regen, opportunities he sees in the broader regen movement, and how their work is influencing the larger, publicly traded parent company they sit within.
 
Episode Highlights:
 
💥 Their 25-year history pioneering hemp foods
🌱 The differences between hemp and cannabis
💪 Why hemp is a nutrition powerhouse
🔬 Using AI-Powered nutrition research to drive innovation
👉 Investing upstream to add value
💡 How they think about their regen strategy
📈 Scaling ROC™ hemp with B2B & B2C
👀 The future of regenerative marketing claims
🔥 Educating Tilray’s other brands on regen
🎯 Getting to critical mass with retailers and consumers
 
Links:
Manitoba Harvest
Hemp Oil Canada / Fresh Hemp Foods
Tilray Brands
Brightseed
Regenerative Organic Certified®
Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC™) Hemp Hearts
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