Deep Seed - Regenerative Agriculture

In this episode of The Deep Seed Podcast, I sit down with wildlife biologist and conservation scientist Dr Shekhar Kolipaka to explore one of the biggest questions at the heart of regeneration: how can humans learn to live with nature again? Shekhar takes us from ancient rock art and Indigenous relationships with wildlife to the rise of agriculture, modern cities and increasingly fragile food syst...

Astrid Vargas has spent her life helping bring endangered species back from the brink of extinction, from the black-footed ferret in North America to the Iberian lynx in Spain. But over the years, her focus expanded from saving individual species to something much bigger: restoring entire ecosystems and landscapes. In this episode, we follow that remarkable journey. We explore the silent decline o...

What does it actually take to restore nature? Not just on individual farms or through isolated projects, but across entire landscapes? For more than a decade, ecologist and Commonland founder Willem Ferwerda has been working on exactly that question. In this episode, Willem takes us inside the thinking behind Commonland and the Four Returns framework : a long-term approach to landscape restoration...

What if humanity already knows how to restore the ecosystems we have degraded? For more than three decades, filmmaker and ecologist John D. Liu has documented some of the world’s most ambitious efforts to bring damaged landscapes back to life. His work documenting the restoration of China’s Loess Plateau showed him something that would shape the rest of his life: large-scale ecological degradation...

A few years ago, Anna Wynants decided to combine her two biggest passions: farming and cooking. She opened ‘De Keukentafel’, which is both a small organic regenerative farm and a fine dining restaurant. Every morning, she walks into the gardens with her coffee to see what’s thriving, what’s ripe, and which ingredients are ready to find their way onto the menu. For a creative chef like her, it’s li...

Et si notre santé ne commençait pas dans l’assiette… mais bien plus bas, dans les sols ? Dans cet épisode, je reçois Pierre Weill, agronome, auteur de Une seule santé et pionnier d’une approche qui relie santé des sols, santé des plantes, santé animale, alimentation humaine et santé publique. On parle de One Health, de densité nutritionnelle, d’agroécologie, de maladies chroniques, d’oméga-3, de p...

In this episode of Deep Seed , regenerative farmers Naomi Oakley and Gunnar Thelin explore what modern agriculture could become if we stopped treating nature as a machine and started listening to living systems again. This is not another conversation about agricultural policy, carbon markets, subsidies or food system bureaucracy. It is a deeply human conversation about regenerative farming, biodiv...

Let me ask you this: do you think Europe can feed itself in 20–30 years under current conditions? In this episode of the Deep Seed Podcast, I sit down with Ivo Degn (Re:source) to unpack a reality very few people are willing to face: Europe’s food system is becoming more fragile, more volatile, and less resilient every year. We talk about rising food insecurity, collapsing soil health, fertiliser...

What if restoring our soils isn’t just a scientific challenge… but an emotional, even spiritual one? What if the future of farming depends as much on beauty, connection, and intention as it does on data, yields, and carbon? In this powerful episode of the Deep Seed Podcast, landscape architect Marian Boswall takes us on a journey that starts with dead soil… and leads to a completely new way of see...

What if the future of food isn’t high-tech… but ancient wisdom? We’ve built a global food system on just four crops... and it’s starting to crack! The real question is: what happens when it breaks? In this episode of the Deep Seed Podcast , Professor Sayed Azam-Ali (University of Nottingham, Crops For the Future) reveals why the key to resilient, nutritious, and truly sustainable food systems migh...

What happens when a farmer publicly admits that modern agriculture might be broken? In this episode, British farmer David Wheatley joins the Deep Seed Podcast to share the unfiltered reality of modern farming. After losing almost everything in a devastating farm fire and facing years of financial losses during COVID, David started posting honest videos about life on his farm — and unexpectedly bui...

What happens when a former hedge fund trader walks away from finance… survives a near-fatal accident… and rebuilds his farm using regenerative agriculture? In this episode of the Deep Seed Podcast , James Butcher shares how he transformed his Suffolk farm from a high-input, chemical-dependent system into a diversified regenerative farming model using: Companion cropping Livestock integration Agrof...

What if the future of regenerative agriculture won’t be decided in Europe… but in India, Africa, and the Global South? In this powerful Deep Seed mini-episode, we sit down with Professor Nitya Rao , leading gender and climate researcher and contributor to the Lancet Commission on Food Systems , to explore a perspective we rarely hear in the regenerative agriculture movement. Because here’s the unc...

Can regenerative agriculture really restore biodiversity, rebuild soil health, increase farmer profits and still feed the world? Or is it just a powerful story we want to believe? In this evidence-based Deep Seed conversation, biodiversity scientist Professor Lynn Dicks shares groundbreaking real-world research from commercial farms in the UK and India — revealing what the science actually says ab...

In this episode of Deep Seed , I sit down with Andrew Voysey , Chief Impact Officer at Soil Capital , to go beyond slogans and dig into what it actually takes to scale regenerative agriculture in a world built for short-term output. We unpack why most farmers feel trapped, why markets alone won’t fix our food systems, and how credible impact measurement — paired with smart policy and aligned incen...

Our food system is on the verge of collapse — but we can fix it. In this episode, we’re joined by Tim Benton , one of the world’s leading experts on food security, to unpack the deep systemic drivers behind the crisis… and what a truly regenerative future could look like. We cover: Why the food system is fundamentally unsustainable The 3 “lock-ins” keeping us stuck How planetary boundaries apply t...

What if every bite of cheap food you eat is secretly costing society triple the price you paid at checkout? In this eye-opening episode, food systems expert Adele Jones (former Executive Director of the Sustainable Food Trust) pulls back the curtain on the true cost of our food. From soil health and ecosystem collapse to diet-related disease and skyrocketing healthcare costs, Adele explains how we...

In one of the driest, most degraded landscapes in Europe, farmer and agroforester Antonio Coelho has built 60 cm of fertile topsoil, raised organic matter to 7.4%, and slashed irrigation by 85% - all in just six years! In this #REWIND episode, Antonio shares his deeply inspiring journey into entropic agroforestry , a form of regenerative agriculture that mimics forest ecosystems to grow food, rest...

What if you could bring a dead river back to life by working with farmers, not against them? In this powerful #REWIND episode, Silvia Quarta shares the story of a forgotten valley in one of Europe’s driest regions, where springs stopped flowing, wells ran dry, and the river disappeared. But through radical listening, community trust, and regenerative agriculture, a new vision is starting to emerge...

What if we stopped just talking about regeneration… and started measuring it? In this #REWIND episode, Peter Fröhlich, engineer, farmer, and co-founder of AgriPurpose, lays out a powerful, outcome-driven approach to regenerative agriculture. No fluff! Just clear, data-informed tools to guide land restoration at scale. Peter explains how satellite data, targeted soil testing, and simple metrics lik...

This episode will change the way you think about farming, food, and fairness. When we talk about regenerative agriculture, we often focus on soil. But what about value ? What about money , structure , and power in the food system? In this #REWIND episode, agronomist and regenerative ag pioneer Nicolas Verschuere unpacks how we can rebuild fair, functional value chains that truly reward farmers wit...

Farmers aren’t the problem... they’re the solution! In this eye-opening episode, agronomist Nicolas Verschuere dismantles common myths about soil health, tillage, and agrochemicals. He reveals what actually works to make farming more regenerative, resilient, and profitable. Drawing on decades of hands-on experience with European farmers, he explains why cover crops, minimal disturbance, and smarte...

Notre agriculture va droit dans le mur. C’est ce que rappelle, sans détour, le biologiste et mycologue Marc-André Selosse dans ce #REWIND coup de poing. Il nous livre un éclairage saisissant sur le coût réel de l’agriculture conventionnelle : dégradation de la santé des sols , explosion des coûts de dépollution de l’eau , perte de matière organique, émissions de CO₂, et dépendance aux engrais chim...

Et si l’agriculture de demain passait par un retour aux racines? Dans cet épisode, le professeur Marc-André Selosse, biologiste, mycologue et vulgarisateur hors pair, nous emmène dans l’univers fascinant du sol vivant et des réseaux mycorhiziens, ces alliances secrètes entre champignons et racines qui façonnent la fertilité de nos terres. Avec passion et précision, il nous explique pourquoi la san...

What if farms were owned by communities... and managed for generations to come? 🌱 In this #REWIND episode, we revisit a powerful moment with Eline Veninga , co-founder of Lenteland , a groundbreaking initiative in the Netherlands that’s rethinking land ownership, farmer succession, and regenerative agriculture from the ground up. Eline breaks down the structural barriers young farmers face — from...