The Regenerative Agroforestry Podcast

In this episode I discuss with Claire Lemarié her experience working with farmers in the Pays de la Loire region in France, where she is a technical adviser for the chamber of agriculture. She has precious insights into the management of mature hedges, as this region still has a significant amount of bocage: a traditional french hedge layout. In this interview we gain an understanding of why effective information sharing between farmers is crucial to creating innovative agroforestry systems and how she enables peer to peer exchange through the 'Club des Agroforestiers'.• RESOURCEShttps://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-lemari%C3%A9-34b667155/?originalSubdomain=frYoutube video Chambre d'agriculture de la Loire• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bruce Maynard and his family are livestock managers and row crop farmers in New South Wales in Austalia. Over his carreer, he has succesfully integrated shrubs and trees to their livestock and row crop operation. He has been able to double his stocking rate through increasing the ecological function of the farm. We dig deep into the design of his tree systems and how it has evloved over the years. We unpack in detail how he has been able to transform his landscape on such a large scale and how this was possible from a business perspective. TABLE OF CONTENTS00:01:21 Bruce's story and description of the farm00:10:06 No-kill cropping00:15:05 Complexifying the landscape00:22:57 Design over time00:30:19 Taking machinery into account00:37:57 Specifics of saltbush00:42:30 Recovery times between bush and pasture00:54:06 Microclimatic benefits00:57:30 Planting trees at scale and its logistics01:10:30 Management of trees/shrubs01:16:00 Business strategy and cashflow01:19:32 Ressources to go further• RESOURCEShttp://selfherding.com/index.htmlhttps://stressfreestockmanship.com.au/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHzo0fDBZs0• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conventional viticulture and its intensive management has created some important challenges for wine producers and the regions where they are located. Jean-Baptiste Cordonnier has been able to intimately experience the conventional approach, seeing the fertility and biodiversity of his family's château gradually degrade. For the first time since the start of the show, we are able to delve into the story of an incredible viticulture agroforestry transition. With cover crops, hedges and alley cropping, Jean-Baptiste is innovating new solutions for a management intensive crop. We delve into the story, context, agronomy and practical details of his strategy, for an interview rich in experiences and lessons learnt. TABLE OF CONTENTS00:02:55 Introduction00:07:53 Trial and error to find regenerative solutions00:13:39 Effects of planting hedges on the vineyard00:23:08 Design process00:36:58 Managing weeds and pruning hedges00:43:33 Managing the pruning at scale00:48:12 Mulching and the importance of cover crops01:04:02 Trees planted within the vineyard01:10:35 What are the expected agronomic results? 01:16:49 Why advantages outweigh challenges 01:21:23 Looking at the economics01:31:16 Are neighbouring vineyards interested?01:34:20 What effect do you expect on the quality of wine?• RESOURCEShttps://chateauanthonic.com/en/https://www.instagram.com/chateau_anthonic/https://www.facebook.com/chateauanthonic/• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we continue investigating Syntropic Farming with Daniel from the Mata do Lobo farm in Brasil. In the past 4 years, they have been working solutions to scale these complex agroforestry systems, soon reaching 50ha planted. Daniel and his partner, Maria Vittoria, have accumulated some tremendous experience as they build one of the most innovative coffee plantations out there. In this episode, you will find out what is the difference between the health and quality of agroforestry coffee and conventional coffee. You will also understand how they are striking a balance between efficiency and complexity - in order to integrate the principles of Syntropic whilst managing these systems at scale. This was a highly practical conversation, inspired by the questions we received from our listeners on social media. We hope you enjoy! TABLE OF CONTENTS03:47 Daniel’s story12:35 Objective of the agroforestry plot  16:01 How do you manage inputs? 20:02 What makes Syntropic less input intensive? 22:39 What does the agroforestry produce? 31:09 How much diversity is integrated to the coffee crop? 35:51 How is the coffee crop responding to the Syntropic system? 41:46 How are coffee yields expected to perform in comparison to conventional?    45:41 How did he plant so many trees effectively?  51:01 How many people working on the agroforestry system? 55:23 How do you manage so much biomass? 01:07:26 What harvesting process for coffee? 01:12:16 What potential of mechanisation for Syntropic systems? 01:14:57 What commercialisation strategy? 01:19:44 Is he planning a processing facility? 01:21:48 Could Syntropic systems work in a European context?  01:24:08 Where does he get knowledge from?  • RESOURCEShttps://www.instagram.com/matadolobo/?hl=en• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our team attended the Regenerative Agriculture and Food Systems Summit, organised by Kiasko Research in order to catalyse a regenerative transition in the food industry. The event was attended by large corporations such as Nestle, Unilever and Yara, as well as numerous companies and organisations that work actively with Regen Ag on the ground. We attended the conference as media partners, producing mini-interviews with a diversity of summit attendees. The objective of this episode is try and understand the value of the strategies being implemented by large corporations, as well as the way in which technical and specialised companies are working to scale Regen Ag. Whilst many of our listeners may not feel aligned with some of the companies we have interviewed, we believe in the value of having open and objective conversations with all players in the field, in order for each of us to form our own opinion. We also believe that the food corporations are hugely influential in the food system today, and must be considered if we are rapidly scale regenerative agriculture. We hope you enjoy this rather different episode!TABLE OF CONTENTS00:02:08 Anne-Sophie Alibert - Pur Projet00:10:55 Roberto Vega - Syngenta00:20:54 Andrew Voysey - Soil Capital 00:29:15 Daniel Baertschi - Quantis00:38:07 Bastien Sachet - Earthworm Foundation00:52:25 Charles Leonardi - Nestlé 01:12:14 Felix Jakobsen - Klim01:22:20 Phillipe Birker - Climate Farmers  • RESOURCEShttps://www.purprojet.com/https://www.syngenta.com/enhttps://soilcapital.com/https://quantis.com/https://www.earthworm.org/https://www.nestle.com/https://www.klim.eco/https://www.climatefarmers.org/• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Weitz is a European expert in fast growing biomass trees, with a special passion for Poplar. These fast growing crops are especially interesting for agroforestry systems thanks to their early returns and their capacity to produce ecosystem services early on. Furthermore, the need to find alternatives to fossil fuels and sustainable building materials is leading to evolving economic opportunities for farmers. In this interview we are hitting the nail on the head when it comes to integrating valuable tree crops on our farms! Michael has the ability to zoom into the technical details and zoom out to the bigger picture questions around biomass crops. Enjoy learning about the flexibility and beauty of poplar as well as the challenges that need to be overcome to scale these systems. This is hopefully the first of many interviews on the topic of fast growing trees!TABLE OF CONTENTS02:41 Introduction09:24 Biomass crops 16:45 Poplar industry and market22:57 Flexibility of the poplar crop 29:28 Medium term cycle poplar for agroforestry 34:56 Which cycle to optimise biomass production37:20 Management requirements 45:00 What is the minimum scale for economic viability?53:46 Favouring medium cycle on a small scale  57:24 Planting on marginal land  01:06:58 Shouldn’t agricultural land stay dedicated to food production instead of biomass production? 01:18:42 Biomass crops and diversification 01:25:26 Carbon credits and biodiversity credits01:28:41 Market trends on wood products 01:34:26 Can a third party implement and manage the biomass crop? 01:44:22 How can we diversify biomass species? • RESOURCESwww.lignovis.comwww.lignoplant.comwww.lignotech.dewww.hühner-wald.dewww.vivocarbon.comwww.instagram.com/lignoviswww.facebook.com/lignovis• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Patrick Worms on the show. He is a policy advisor for World Agroforestry and the ex-president of the European Agroforestry Federation. We discuss together agroforestry from a policy perspective to understand how we convince decision makers and what type of funding is needed to scale agroforestry. Although much of the conversation is focused on Europe, Patrick gives some insights that will be of great interest to anyone who wants to convince key players of the opportunity of agroforestry. Patrick is an amazing speaker and you will find this interview to be not only highly informative but also entertaining and full of punchlines.TABLE OF CONTENTS01:49 Personal background 04:52 The appeal of agroforestry 06:23 Work at ICRAF 08:00 The power of stories11:22 Missions of EURAF 18:00 Perception of agroforestry in policy circles 20:44 What is preventing a scaling of agroforestry? 23:37 What is blocking agroforestry within EU member states? 27:55 Agroforestry in the African context 34:50 Successful examples from East Asia 41:54 Funding agroforestry 46:04 What role for private funding? 52:36 Is the case for agroforestry clear and properly demonstrated?  • RESOURCEShttps://euraf.isa.utl.pt/welcomehttps://www.worldagroforestry.org/• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I talk with Felix Riecken who is planting out silvopastoral and silvoarable systems on his 90ha family farm in the North of Germany. The farm traditionally produces cow milk and meat. He explains the journey that led him to agroforestry and integrating these techniques into the family business. His systems being still quite young, we focus the conversation on the design, the objectives and the establishment of the tree systems. This goes from choosing the right genetics, to protecting the trees and managing the weeds. Felix also explains how he successfully funded the agroforestry systems.In Collaboration with the German Agroforestry Association (DeFAF) TABLE OF CONTENTS01:48 Felix’s story 08:18 Overview of the farm20:16 Agroforestry systems30:56 Objectives and design 40:13 Choosing varieties and genetics46:38 Protection of the young trees50:30 Weed management55:34 Balancing complexity and labour 01:01:24 Funding01:10 Next steps  • RESOURCEShttps://rieckens-landmilch.de/eichhof/familie-riecken/https://agroforst-info.de/• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Campbell Mercer owns 40ha outside Melbourne, Australia where he has set up a world class olive farm - producing award winning organic olive oil. Campbell uses a variety of fascinating agroforestry practices, from windbreaks to farm forestry and silvopastural systems. We have an in-depth conversation on small scale farm forestry, from design considerations to harvest and selling. We also discussed the Keyline cultivation pattern and its implications for tree planting, finishing off with the various functions of his windbreaks and their interaction with neighbouring olive trees. Overall, Campbell has not been shy to make use of tree systems to align his production with the ecology he works in. He has managed to harness the ecosystem services provided by trees whilst ensuring they remain economically productive.TABLE OF CONTENTS02:42 Story and context of the farm11:09 Why go organic? 13:28 Use of black wattle19:52 Selling small quantities of timber 23:16 Main objectives of agroforestry on the farm27:56 Design of the systems39:04 Sawing material 40:56 Drying the wood43:37 Pruning46:35 Profitability of timber plantations57:22 Interactions between grass and trees01:01:24 Planting along the keyline pattern01:05:17 Feedback on deep ripping and swales01:10:46 Would you do keyline again? 01:19:41 Windbreaks01:28:34 Choice of species in windbreak01:38:17 Production from them01:40:28 Interactions between windbreak and olive trees01:45:00 Improved overall productivity • RESOURCEShttps://mannahillestate.com.au/https://www.instagram.com/mannahill.estate/• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Jill Stewart are owners and managers of Yan Yan Gurt West Farm in the Otway Ranges, Southern Victoria, Australia. For the past 30 years, they have taken regenerative agriculture extremely seriously in order to solve problems of soil salinisation, soil erosion, climate change and animal welfare. In order to do so they have planted 23kms of shelterbelts and riparian buffers, connected into a complex ecological mosaic to produce both ecosystem services and a huge variety of new enterprises. Since they started planting trees they have increased tree cover from 3% to 20%, without reducing any of their sheep productivity. Quite the contrary, they have opened up a whole new set of enterprises from saw logs to woody florals. Tune in to find out more about this incredible transition!TABLE OF CONTENTS01:40 Introduction08:50 The story of the farm15:00 Main productions25:34 Timber production36:07 Harvest and milling44:43 Economic decision of harvesting shelter belts52:36 Do trees increase too much fixed costs? 59:13 Are subsidies necessary to justify economically agroforestry plantations? 01:06:29 Tree - Pasture interaction 01:15:01 Managing weeds when planting young trees   • RESOURCEShttps://www.facebook.com/yanyangurtwestfarm/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3KXLsj2qLw&t=306s• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Federico San Bonifacio is the owner and farm manager of a 30ha farm in the plains of Verona, Northern Italy. For 12 years he has been engaging in an agroecological transition where trees and shrubs play a fundamental role. Breaking the monotony of the surrounding corn and soy plots, he has planted hedges in long strips to provide the ecosystem services that support his grain production. At the same time, Federico planted 5ha of polycyclic forestry, a forestry practice that balances economic return and ecological health of the soil and ecosystem. It is always fascinating to interview farmers, as they interact with their agroforestry systems daily, and provide rich feedback to others who wish to walk similar paths.TABLE OF CONTENTS01:50 - Federico's story 10:20 - Farm production and sales channels 16:25 - Direct selling 20:25 - Hedges: objectives and description 27:10 - Funding the hedges 32:10 - Plastic vs biodegradable mulch & planting technique 39:05 - Medium and long term management of the hedge 47:10 - Interactions between the hedge and the grain crop50:10 - Introducing polycyclic forestry: design, harvest, sale 01:06:30 - Why polycyclic and economic considerations  01:20:05 - Farm forestry vs alley cropping 01:22:40 - Funding considerations and lessons learnt • RESOURCEShttps://www.inbiowood.eu/• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott and Sandy Williams got involved in farming after acquiring 500 acres of productive land in Illinois, USA. After meeting the Savannah Institute, they were inspired to transition their land towards conservation agriculture, with a keen interest in agroforestry systems. This interviews delves into the 17 acre perennial polyculture project they planted 5 years ago, and explores how they collaborate with their farmer tenant to implement extensive silvopasture, windbreaks and riparian buffers. Whilst we often see the perspective of the farm manager, it is fascinating to understand how dedicated landlords work to implement agroforestry practices. TABLE OF CONTENTS02:10 Story of the Williams siblings and the farm 07:05 The perennial polyculture project 18:45 Objectives and economic strategy of the project 33:05 Learning how to farm 37:05 Mechanisation and management tasks in the polyculture 41:10 Lessons learnt in the past 6 years 49:20 Silvopasture agroforestry experiments in collaboration with farm tenant and the Savannah Institute 59:35 Long term vision for the land and the relationship to the tenant farmer • GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.