What does regenerative product design look like?

Editor’s Note: New Food Order is a podcast brought to by AFN’s parent company AgFunder in collaboration with Food+Tech Connect, co-hosted by AgFunder’s Louisa Burwood-Taylor and Food+Tech Connect’s Danielle Gould.

The views expressed in the podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the team at AFN or AgFunder.

Companies big and small are making commitments to launch regenerative products, but what does regenerative product design actually look like? How do we measure the impacts of product design and ingredient choices on people and our planet? Is regenerative product design enough, or do we have to rethink business models, too? 

This week, we discuss this and more with Ethan Soloviev, farmer and chief innovation officer at HowGood, a food sustainability rating company. His work with international retailers and CPG brands combines on-the-ground agricultural expertise in 34 countries with sustainability-driven market insights. Ethan has developed environmental and social impact metrics for analysis of more than 3,000 brands, including Ahold-Delhaize, Walmart, and Danone. He regularly presents on regenerative agriculture and regenerative business at conferences around the world, and is the author of “Regenerative Enterprise: Optimizing for Multi-Capital Abundance” and the monthly “Regeneration Newsroom.”

What to expect in this episode:

• Cultivating a regenerative paradigm
• How to provide food producers with the information they need to minimize the negative climate and labor risks of their products
• Where regeneration strategy needs to differ when thinking about large vs small producers
• Which metrics companies and consumers need to be looking at
• The business benefits of regeneration and regenerative product design
• Ethan’s optimism around ecosystem services marketplaces
• Why Ethan thinks biotech and plant-based innovations are not enough on their own and why they must be used in conjunction with a new mindset

How to listen

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