New Ventures Podcast Sanjoy Sanyal

Rice millers in the Central and East Java provinces in Indonesia are facing a shortage of paddy from farmers.  Production has been impacted by changing rainfall patterns, pest attacks and the occasional non-availability of pesticides and fertilisers. The industry association Indonesia Rice Millers and Traders Association -PERPADI has partnered with Preferred by Nature, an international NGO to implement sustainable rice practices for both farmers and millers. For farmers this means practices that optimise the use of chemical inputs (even if they do not go fully organic) and water. For millers this means shifting to electricity instead of using diesel. By making these changes, both farmers and millers can decrease costs. The side benefit is carbon and methane emissions are reduced.
The project is financed by a grant from SWITCH Asia, a programme of the EU to promote sustainable consumption and production.              


Sections

Section 1: First 23 minutes about how the project by Preferred by Nature, its goals and activities 

Section 2: Next 13 minutes about building partnerships to take it further

Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise

New Ventures Website

www.regainparadise.org

Guest : Angga Maulana Yusuf

Lead Project Manager in the SWITCH Asia Low

Carbon Rice project

amaulana@preferredbynature.org


https://preferredbynature.org/newsroom/indonesias-low-carbon-rice-project-leads-way-sustainable-rice-production

 

Fishing methods of small-scale fishers are more sustainable because they capture less bycatch (fish that is discarded). Unfortunately, like in many places of the world, the livelihoods of   small-scale fishers in the Occidental Mindoro province in Philippines are vulnerable both to climate change and overfishing by large fleets. The fishing community supplies both domestic and export markets. WWF Philippines was able to utilise this linkage with export markets to help implement a project (with EU financing) that help connect the fishing communities with local food processing companies. The fishing association has obtained the Marine Stewardship Certification. WWF Philippines is now working with community members – especially women – to start businesses that help diversify income.     

Sections

Section 1 :
First 23 minutes about how WWF Philippines was able to get the MSC certification for the fishers

Section 2 :
Next 23 minutes about efforts to diversify incomes and create alternative livelihoods

Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder
Regain Paradise New Ventures Website : ⁠www.regainparadise.org⁠

Guest : Melody Melo-Rijk, Project
Manager Project Manager, WWF Philippines

⁠mmelorijk@wwf.org.ph⁠

⁠https://sustainabletuna.wwf.org.ph/⁠

Description:
Small fishing communities in South Africa (and many other parts of the world) have often been discriminated against. First there is colonisation and (in the case of South Africa) the apartheid regime. Then there is the interest of national governments to create an industrial fishing sector. And yet these communities live on thanks to the strong bonds to the ocean and age-old cultural traditions.     
A new threat has now emerged: climate change. Climate change is  leading to erosion, flooding and hurricanes. Green energy infrastructure projects (needed to reduce global emissions) threaten the fragile ecosystem and livelihoods of these vulnerable people.
Would the quest to save the planet sacrifice people? 


Sections

Section 1: First 24 minutes about the threats to the small scale fishing communities in South Africa

Section 2: Is there a better future?   

Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise

www.regainparadise.org

Guest : Prof. Merle Sowman, Professor Emerita

: Menka Vansant, Doctoral Researcher

Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town

merle.sowman@uct.ac.za

mkvansant@gmail.com

https://science.uct.ac.za/department-egs

Bangladesh is acutely vulnerable to the climate crisis. BRAC, the world’s largest NGO is implementing adaptation clinics in very vulnerable areas. The process involves understanding the specific problem the community is facing and then implementing a solution, while taking the community along. The results are extremely encouraging. 


Sections

Section 1: First 25 minutes about BRAC’s approach     

Section 2: Next 20  minutes about how this approach is applied to the various geographies 

Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise

www.regainparadise.org

Guest : Tausif Ahmed Qurashi

Senior Programme Manager, Climate Change Programme 

https://www.brac.net/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tausif-ahmed-qurashi-54287b85/

Cellular meat is not going to flood your supermarket shelves anytime soon. Across the world, only four companies have got regulatory approval. They are organising tasting sessions in restaurants and “pop ups” but it will take several years for companies to scale up manufacturing processes to produce sufficient volumes of  products at reasonable costs (even assuming that it is only the adventurous, conscious and rich customers who will be the early adopters of cell based meat and dairy products.

But cell based meat, milk and seafood can wean customers
off the real thing in a way that plant based foods cannot. The plant based foods is a rapidly growing industry and is an 11 billion dollar in the world.  Plant based meats have environmental benefits over conventional meat but it is hard for these “fake meats” to  cater to the aspirational and cultural aspects of a meat dish. Which is where cell based meat comes in.

Some countries are taking proactive steps in developing
regulation for this food innovation. Singapore which imports almost its food is doing so because it wants to secure food supplies (grow 30% of its food by 2030). One company has received regulatory approval. Netherlands wants to remain a food exporter even as they hit net zero targets.  The US is another front runner and has given regulatory approval to two countries.

The encouraging thing is that regulators are innovating
around the regulatory process itself. User friendly websites are encouraging companies to get in touch.. Enquiries and responses are promptly answered. Regulators are righty concerned about safety and health of consumers and go through a process that takes a year to two to understand the product and the production process, assess the risks and develop risk mitigation processes. However, the process is collaborative with regulators acknowledging that they are learning along with the companies. Most importantly the regulators appreciate that the companies they are dealing with are start-ups and do not have an army of lawyers. They are going out of their way to make the whole process transparent. Some of them are even making previous application drafts available so that companies can develop better applications.

Sections

Section 1: First 12 minutes Ambika’s background, why cell-based food and a global overview   
Section 2: Next 30  minutes regulation and government support.

Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise

New Ventures Website

www.regainparadise.org

Guest : Ambika Hiranandani

Regulatory Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, Senara

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambika-hiranandani-b4815616b/

A rancher in South America is worried about the condition of his land. He knows that improving the soil condition will help in growing more grass which his livestock can feed on. He wants to leave his land in a better state to his children so that they can inherit his profession as well and decides to more regenerative practices. A NGO in East Africa has been already working in improving the agricultural practices of thousands of small holder farmers. This allows them to grow more food and not cut down forest trees in an effort to feed their families.
Farmers like these know the true benefit of “soil organic carbon”. It helps increase soil fertility and improve biodiversity in the lands they live in.  The voluntary carbon market which provides financial incentives to farmers to sequester carbon provides only additional benefits to these important gains.  
International organizations implementing large land restoration projects that help generate carbon credits need to remember that for these projects have to generate positive socio-economic benefits to local communities if the benefits of carbon sequestration have to be positive.
Soilwatch works with international organisations and carbon project developers to develop carbon projects. It tries to incorporate elements that help improve food security in these projects. The services include creating baseline of biomass in and above the soil, modelling how much carbon will be sequestered, designing project activities that help in achieving the goals and monitoring and verifying the amount of carbon sequestered. The process of doing this requires deep scientific expertise. The team at Soilwatch includes agricultural experts, ecological economists, data scientists and behavioral science experts. They use AI and machine  language tools to identify cropland from satellite images. But AI is not only the only arsenal at their disposal. To answer important questions like how much carbon is going to be sequestered if the temperature rises by 1 degree C there is a long history of statistical ecological tools that are available. The important thing is to do the right tool and the right data source for the problem at hand.                 
Sections
Section 1: First 5 minutes Joona’s background and starting Soilwatch
Section 2: Upto 22 minutes what Soilwtach does.
Section 3: Last 13 minutes about examples of Soilwatch’s projects 
Host
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
⁠www.regainparadise.org⁠
Guest
Joona Mikkola
Chief Scientist, Soilwatch

https://soilwatch.eu/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joona-mikkola/