Europe has a major challenge to take on: there are not enough young people working in agriculture. At the same time it is their generations that are more engaged and aware of climate issues and can meaningfully contribute to the establishment of an agricultural model that is more united and respectful of the environment. However, only 11% of all farms in the European Union are run by farmers under the age of 40. Young people wishing to engage in agriculture still have to face difficulties such as access to land, finance, knowledge, and training. This reveals a real generational problem in a se ..read more

Heroic Viticulture refers to the cultivation of vineyards under extremely difficult conditions. The vines of these regions are arranged on narrow terraces (bancales) built with stone walls, creating a unique landscape of great beauty. The winegrowers, with their effort and passion for the land, challenge the vertiginous slopes through a completely manual harvest. The requirements that the vineyards have to meet in order to be considered an example of Heroic Viticulture are: height of the vineyards at least 500 meters above sea level, the incline of the slope greater than 30%, and the arrangem ..read more

Seemingly every day a new company announces plans to become more “eco-friendly”, plans for a CO2 compensation scheme, a “conscious” product line or some type of sustainability-related certificate. The classics are carbon offset programs, a way for individuals or organizations to reduce their carbon footprint (or at least that’s the idea), for example by “neutralizing” the emissions of a flight by paying for having a tree planted or investing in another type of environmental project.  While the idea itself seems perfectly legitimate and rather reasonable, it also elicits a major question ..read more

The environmental cost of transport accounts for 6% of the total impact of all factors in the entire life cycle of a food item. The factor that generates the most greenhouse gases is the cultivation process. To significantly reduce the negative environmental impact of what we eat, we should above all care about how our food was grown and what natural resources were used in the different stages of its life cycle. The increase in the direct sale of food from producer to consumer has sparked a debate about whether the carbon footprint of these deliveries is higher or lower than that of selling f ..read more

Adopting a tree, an animal or a piece of land? The idea may seem crazy, but this is the project we have launched alongside European farmers. The concept is simple: you adopt a tree, an animal, or a plot of land from the Farmer you wish to support, and then you receive the “fruits” of your adoption directly at the address of your choice.  The benefits of adoption for consumers  Creating a connection with the Farmer In the traditional food distribution chain, knowing about the origin of our food and the people who grow it is not always obvious, or even possible. By adopting with on ..read more

Chocolate might be a beloved indulgence but its production is an ethically questionable one. Kelly Go, co-founder and managing director of Auro Chocolate, is trying to change the status quo and has created a company that not only directly works with farmers, but also produces its products in the country it sources its cocoa from: The Philippines. In this episode, she tells us about the challenges of working in the Philippines, what it is like being a young female founder (“I was told I would fail in a public forum”) and what Auro Chocolate is doing to make a difference. We also learn about c ..read more

There is ongoing debate regarding the definition of regenerative agriculture what it is and what it is not. At CrowdFarming we have decided to position ourselves to support it as a method that adheres to the sustainability principles we uphold. Is regenerative agriculture necessarily organic farming? In Europe, there are farmers using synthetic chemical pesticides who carry out practices to regenerate the land. We defend that having an organic agricultural certification is a necessary condition for being regenerative. To be considered a regenerative farmer, you must ensure that all your prac ..read more

What does it take for a farmer to convert to organic? What are the main hurdles and why is it so hard sometimes?  In this podcast episode we hear different perspectives: We talk to our French vegetable farmer Tiphaine Quemener from Maison Quemener and our Spanish almond farmer Pedro Liñan from Doña Marina to learn about their personal experience with the conversion process and their motivations. And we also talk to Maxime Durand, co-founder of the French “conversion brand” BioDemain, about why he founded his company and what knowledge he has gained.  “By using less pesticides yo ..read more

What to do when our products – for one reason or another – arrive damaged?  Due to the heat, transport taking longer than planned, mishandling of the shipment or bad judgment when making the boxes, our products can sometimes – rarely, but it happens – arrive in suboptimal conditions. Sometimes, being the fans of ugly fruit that we are, we also simply send out fruit that doesn’t look like you might expect or are used to from the conventional sales channels, but that is still perfectly edible. Although we try to continuously improve our logistics and other contributing factors to make sure ..read more

Alfonso Chico de Guzman, regenerative agriculture expert, farmer and co-founder of La Junquera, shares his journey to regenerative farming and explains how he was able to transform his dry and arid lands into thriving fields. He helps us answer some of the following questions: How can we fight desertification? What are the main arguments for and against regenerative agriculture? Why is  the “one size fits all” approach bound to fail? What are the minimum criteria for farming to be considered regenerative? “I see regenerative agriculture as farming that is organic (…) and that improve ..read more