Live Purely With Elizabeth Candelario

Elizabeth Stein 00:00
Hi, everyone. I'm Elizabeth Stein, Founder and CEO of Purely Elizabeth. And this is Live Purely with Elizabeth, featuring candid conversations about how to thrive on your wellness journey. This week's guest is Elizabeth Candelario, Director of Strategic Partnerships for Mad Agriculture, whose mission is nothing less than to revolutionize agriculture for the benefit of farmers, people, and planet. Elizabeth's role is to connect value allied food brands to regenerative farms to help companies meet their product and climate goals and to leverage the marketplace to drive adoption of regenerative agriculture. Prior to joining Mad Ag, Elizabeth was president of the Demeter USA, the nonprofit certifier of biodynamic farms and products. In this episode, I sit down with Elizabeth to give us the background on what regenerative agriculture is, why it's so important for our health and the health of our planet, and how we at Purely Elizabeth are working with Mad Ag to not only convert some of our oat supply to those grown regeneratively, but also conduct a three year research project to understand the positive effects of regenerative agriculture on our oats. We talk about how across both agriculture and diet we understand that diversity is crucial to resilience. A diverse set of plants and animals increases the resilience of the landscape. And a diverse diet improves the resilience of the body through our gut microbiome. Soil health and our health are inextricably connected. Food decisions literally affect everything and not only affects our physical and mental health on a daily basis, but also the environment we live in and the air we breathe. Food connects us to other people. It connects us to nature. Our food decisions, change landscapes change species and the planet and changes our atmosphere. As I've learned more about how regenerative agriculture has the power to transform our agriculture system. In order to transform the health of our planet and our people. I knew we as a brand have a responsibility to help affect positive change. I'm so inspired to embark on this journey. Much much more to come but for now enjoy the episode. Elizabeth, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited for our conversation today, we have lots to talk about lots to talk about a big new initiative that we're starting on. But super excited just to dive into everything about your journey, regenerative ag, it's certainly something that at Purely Elizabeth is really what we believe is the future of our health of our food system of our climate communities. And you guys are leaning in such a big way. The experts so excited to have you on.
Elizabeth Candelario 03:30
I'm really excited to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Elizabeth Stein 03:33
So let's start with your personal wellness journey that ultimately got you at Mad Agriculture.
Elizabeth Candelario 03:39
Well let's see, I was actually in the wine industry for a long time. I know that you've had some folks on to talk about wine, I spent over two decades in the wine industry. But I always like to tell people being in the wine industry is a little bit like having dessert for dinner. It's really fun, but it's not very filling. And so what I would do is I jump out of the wine business and I do a lot of work and nonprofit. I was always very passionate about projects that had at their core social mission. So my career kind of has two tracks in that way. But about 16 years ago, I was working at a winery in Sonoma County in California about an hour north of San Francisco. And we were doing a Creek Restoration Project on the estate. And we felt like there was a little bit of a philosophical disconnect between doing that work and getting our organic certification. So we hired a consultant guy named Alan Yorke, who's actually very famous in the world of agriculture and viticulture to help us and he said, You all shouldn't stop at organic, you should be biodynamic. And we were like bio what we'd never even heard of, but really on the strength of his recommendation, we decided to go for it. And over the course of five years, we saw a tremendous change in the health and vitality of the estate. But in addition to that, we also witnessed a change in the people who work there. And it changed with our customers. And it was all based on the transition we made to biodynamic. And so I would say at that point, I felt emerging between my career in the wine business and my interest in social mission. For people who don't know, what is biodynamic? The simple way to think about it is it's a very extensive form of organic farming. In today's vernacular, one would definitely think of it as regenerative agriculture. And we can talk more about that. Okay, I went to work for the gentleman who owned the winery decided to retire. I went to work for Demeter, which is the oldest ecological certification organization in the world. And I worked for Demeter USA, and I retired as president of Demeter USA about two years ago. That's the journey where I went from kind of being in the wine business and being really interested in social mission, really focus then on agriculture and regenerative ag.
Elizabeth Stein 06:24
And then how did you find Mad Ag?
Elizabeth Candelario 06:26
You know, I was doing a number of consulting projects. And I've been a fan of Mad Ag since they start Mad Agriculture since it started five years ago. And when I heard that they were going to launch a markets program. I really felt like it was a natural extension of my recent career, and also my passion about leveraging the marketplace to drive adoption of regenerative agriculture. So I started to work at Mad Ag about a year and a half ago.
Elizabeth Stein 06:58
Okay, great. So before jumping into Mad Ag, I just want to jump back to your experience on the vineyard. And when you said, you know, there were all these changes that you saw, both from the people, the customers, the actual vineyard. Can you talk a little bit about what those changes look like, and if you, what the winery was, or is.
Elizabeth Candelario 07:20
It's Quivira vineyards, which is spelled Q-U-I-V-I-R-A, Quivira vineyards.
Elizabeth Stein 07:26
Oh, I've been there.
Elizabeth Candelario 07:28
So lovely.
Elizabeth Stein 07:29
Yes.
Elizabeth Candelario 07:30
So you're a wine drinker.
Elizabeth Stein 07:32
I am and I am a biodynamic wine drinker, as well.
Elizabeth Candelario 07:35
That we have so much in common already. You know, I'll give you an example. We had and it was a wine drinker, you'll know what I'm talking about. So we had a block of a vineyard that still had phylloxera in it. So what phylloxera was a major problem in California wine industry in the American wine industry, and over many, many, many years, wineries replanted vineyards so that it would have phylloxera resistant rootstock, because it almost wiped out the California wine industry in the 70s. We had one block of Sauvignon Blanc that had phylloxera that had not been replanted. And we were about to rip it all out. Like we had the rest of the vineyard. And we planted in Sauvignon Blanc that had was disease resistant. And we started working with biodynamics and we got super focused on building compost piles the first year. And we were like, oh, you know what, we'll get to that vineyard next year. And then the next year came in, it was like, you know, that vineyard doesn't seem to be doing any worse. Let's put it off another year. And we put it off another year. And what we found is over the course of five years, the phylloxera was still present in the vineyard, but the vitality of the vines had gotten so much stronger, that the vines themselves were able to mitigate against the impact of phylloxera. And at the end of the day, we never took the vin, we never pulled that vineyard out. Wow, that's incredible. There are very many metaphors between how we think of our own health and vitality, and how we think about healthy farming. So that's exactly what happens when you have the regenerative farm system. In this case biodynamic, the intrinsic health of the property gets so strong, that it's much easier to mitigate against problems, just like our own health. And like, I mean, if we're really super healthy, and we're in a room with somebody that has the flu, or god forbid, you know, the last three years we've learned with COVID You know, if you're a super healthy person, you're either going to not get it, or in most cases, or you're going to be able to fight it off, or the incidence of it won't be so terrible, like we've really witnessed with COVID So thisis the exact same thing.
Elizabeth Stein 10:01
Yeah. And I think probably a lot of that also is the same in the gut microbiome and the soil microbiome, as you're saying that being the root of the health.
Elizabeth Candelario 10:13
Absolutely. And I think we should talk about that.
Elizabeth Stein 10:16
Okay, great. Well, let's let's dive in first giving us the mission of Mad Ag and laying that foundation and then we'll get into regen. But what is really the mission and the key pillars? Who is Mad Ag, what are you guys do?
Elizabeth Candelario 10:29
So Mad Ag, thank you so much mad agriculture, named for the Mad farmer poems of Wendell Berry, which I'm sure a lot of your listeners will know Wendell Berry, he's really kind of our North Star was started about five years ago. It is a nonprofit started by a gentleman named Phil Taylor, who has a PhD in agro ecology and has worked most places in the world in agriculture. And he landed at the University of Colorado Boulder teaching in the master's program for environmental science and decided he wanted to get back on farms. So he started Mad agriculture really to help farmers transition from conventional to regenerative. And we do that now in really four different ways. You know, as a young farmer told us, it was so simply stated, but so impactful for me personally, he said, everything in the system conspires to keep us exactly where we are. So when you're talking about these farms that we work with, that are 200 to 20,000 acres, growing GMO crops largely for livestock, and you want them to help them transition to growing, regenerative, organic agriculture, growing mostly crops for people. And the leap for a farmer to do that is vast, and so mad agriculture, really, you can think of it as it's like a Swiss army knife for those farmers. We have our mad lands team that provide boots on the ground on farms to help realize that farmers intention with their land, they also conduct a lot of research on the farms that we're working with. We're going to talk about that a little bit later. I bet. Yeah. Then we have mad capital, which is really a farmer forward bank. Obviously, access to capital is a big stumbling block for these farmers. Our third leg of the stool is mad markets. That's what I and Alex Heilmann head up. Our work is connecting the farms to CPG companies like purely Elizabeth. And then finally mad revolution, which is really our cultural arm, our marketing effort, and we publish a journal, we have a fabulous website, madagriculture.org that we put a lot of resources on, we have a lot of community events and those kinds of things.
Elizabeth Stein 12:51
That's fantastic. I, the work that you guys are doing is just incredible. And we'll get into but we're so excited to be partnering with you and what you guys are doing. So let's start with the history of regenerative ag because I think it's a word that, you know, we're starting to hear more and more about but yet, there's so much that we don't necessarily understand or know where it comes from. Let's start with that.
Elizabeth Candelario 13:14
Well, Elizabeth, I love that you asked that question, because I think when we think about kind of the history of the modern of modern agriculture, it's very informative to where we find ourselves today. So let me start by saying in the 1800s, early 1900s, our communities were agrarian people lived on their farms. They lived in tune with the seasons, they grew crops for their family and their community. They grew lots of different kinds of crops, they had different kinds of animals on the farm, they existed in this larger biological context of forest of Plains. And also, I would say parallel to that indigenous cultures lived very much in tune with the land. And with the advent of industrialization, you know, people move from their farms to the cities, factories were built that really focused on increased production based on the utilization of increased resources. So the idea was that you bring more coal, other natural resources into a factory, more stuff comes out the other side. So it's not surprising that our farms began to resemble factories. And after World War Two, especially chemical companies that had been used been chemical companies that had been making bombs with synthetic nitrogen, nerve gas, found new application for those materials on farm so nitrogen was shown to increase plant growth. The nerve gas was very effective with insects. And so after World War Two, you saw a lot of focus on selling farmers on this idea of if you bring more stuff onto your land, we can increase your production. The problem, then, as it is now is that the true costs of that type of farming, soil degradation, water and air pollution, all of these things were not factored in. And also, I should say, at the same time, antibiotics were discovered, and that allowed farmers to bring their animals indoors, keeping them inside under conditions of extremely restricted mobility. So we not only saw all of this degradation environmentally, but also animal welfare issues start. So if we fast forward to today, gee whiz what do we think about when we think about conventional farming? It's the same idea, I want to tell you something, I actually looked these up to make sure I was going to quote the right numbers for your show today. We spend in the United States $25 billion a year on fer on fertilizer, that's translates to 42 billion pounds of fertilizer that's added to agricultural lands, that then goes into watersheds, that then goes down the Mississippi River and other places and creates havoc in our oceans, we spend $9 billion a year on pesticides. That's 1 billion pounds of chemical that was used as nerve gas that we are spraying on our farms that our farm workers are exposed to that leech into the water supply that impact our communities. There's another $6.6 billion we spend a year on herbicides, 1 billion pounds of herbicides, and all of these to really work the sale of GMO crops, which are uniquely designed to withstand the impacts of these chemicals, and you can almost consider GMO crops is really, that's not really the focus of the companies that are producing them. The focus is the chemicals that they're using, that then can be used in greater and greater quantities with the GMO crops. So the impact of the of this, in our farm systems in our health and communities is profound.
Elizabeth Stein 17:33
Those numbers are absolutely staggering. And when you hear that it starts to certainly connect so many dots of where we are today with the health of our environment, like the health of our microbiome, all of it is so intertwined.
Elizabeth Candelario 17:50
It really is.
Elizabeth Stein 17:51
So we realized all these problems that have happened over the last several decades that's happened to our agriculture. Where does regenerative agriculture come in? And and how is that a solution?
Elizabeth Candelario 18:06
I want to go back to something we talked about earlier. There's a lot of metaphor between how we think about our own health and vitality and how we think about health and vitality on a farm. And I want to talk about how our bodies really are designed. And I know you spent a lot of time talking about this on the on your podcast, our bodies really are designed to move towards wholeness towards health and well being. And the word health literally means wholeness. The word heal means to make whole. So this is a really great way to think about regenerative agriculture because it really is a farming system whose goal is to heal the farm by bringing it back into wholeness. When we think about wholeness in terms of a farm, we ask, does it have healthy water? Is the soil healthy? Is there biodiversity, like lots of different kinds of crops? Lots of different kinds of beneficial insects is there are there animals on the farm, each of these components act individually, and they also act in concept and I should say they also act in concert with the other elements on the farm to create this idea of a whole farm organism. And truly, the word organic actually springs from this concept of the farm as organism. It was coined by a man named Lord Northbourne here in England many decades ago. But that is the origin of the term organic so people can think about farm health through the lens of their own health and vitality. And they can really think about regenerative ag as a method to heal the farm and bring it back into wholeness.
Elizabeth Stein 20:41
So let's dive a little deeper than into what are regenerative agriculture practices? And then how does that benefit our environment, our food systems our community?
Elizabeth Candelario 20:53
Okay, that's a great question. What I would say is and the term regenerative is a generic term, it will never have a legal definition. biodynamic has a legal definition. And you can claim it if you're certified organic has a legal definition you can claim it if you're certified. Regenerative does not. So first and foremost, I would say that a lot of different people define regenerative in a lot of different ways, which is why I really like to start with the core idea of what are we trying to accomplish here. And really, I think what we're trying to accomplish is to just start moving the farm into more of a closed system. You really want a farm that is more capable to produce its own fertility, its own disease and pest and weed control out of the living dynamics of the farm instead of importing solutions from the outside like we just were talking about. So that's really the fundamental idea behind regenerative agriculture. So how do we do that? Well, okay, one way we do that is we put cover crops in would cover crops do they add nitrogen into the soil, they help build soil, they they help with photosynthesis, pulling carbon out of the air, using it to feed themselves, but then they exude some through the root system that feeds the microbiome in the soil. So plants are very integral to building really healthy soil. Another thing that we want to look at is maybe the incorporation of animals, animals add fertility. Another thing we want to look at is biodiversity. Is there a riparian area? Does it have a lake a stream, we want to really protect those areas? Is there room for livestock? Or, I mean, is there room for animals like birds, like pollinators, like whatever happens to be in a particular ecosystem? Those are important not just because we want to respect the animals that we share this planet with. But because they add things birds can eat pesky insects, of course, we all know the role of pollinators on a farm. So the idea really, is to think about regenerative AG, as working with nature, and the tools that we work with our plants and animals on the farm.
Elizabeth Stein 23:23
So just as a clarifying question, when you said at the beginning of this, that, you know, organic certified, biodynamic certified, but there's no legal definition of regen, how does that work with the new recent ROC, regenerative certified organic certified?
Elizabeth Candelario 23:45
Great question and I should have covered that. So with ROC, the regenerative organic certification, that is managed through the regenerative organic Alliance, what somebody a farm needs to be baseline organic, and then they layer on additional requirements. So they're ensuring that a certain amount of that properties and biodiversity they're ensuring that their cover cropping, they're ensuring that they're building soil health, so regenerative organic certification, and there is a certification for that is organic added space, and then it adds additional requirements on top and then in a, a regenerative organic product needs to be made up of regenerative organic ingredients, and then the certified organic as well.
Elizabeth Stein 24:34
That's super helpful. So two of the big I guess I don't know if you want to call them buzzwords or benefits, I think that have have been talked about and certainly are real when it comes to regen are on soil health and climate. And I'd love to kind of dive into each of those buckets, starting with soil health because that to me is what is super interesting, exciting it's you know, the health of the soil is healthy soil healthy plants healthy people is how I kind of think about it. But let's kind of dive into I just heard this statistic that and you could validate if this is true or not, but that our soils 20 to 40% less nutrients in it than it had decades ago. And that you'd have to eat eight oranges for the one that our grandparents would have had to eat from a pure vitamin mineral nutrient capacity. And you kind of touched on this, but why is our soil health hat? Why is it changed? And then therefore, why is our food less nutritious today than it used to be?
Elizabeth Candelario 25:47
Great question. I'm going to get a little soil geeky right now. So forgive me.
Elizabeth Stein 25:52
Tell us everything.
Elizabeth Candelario 25:54
Yeah, so our soil health has changed, because the way we farm has changed. And we went through how the farming has changed. So fundamentally, what happens with and this is what ties soil health to climate. I touched on this a little bit earlier. So when a plant is photosynthesizing, it's pulling or trees or any, you know, living plant, it's pulling carbon out of there. So it's taking co2 out of the air, it's holding on to that carbon molecule, it's releasing the oxygen molecules back into the air, and it uses that carbon for food. But it doesn't use all of it. Generally, our plant usually about 60 to 70%. It exudes the rest of that carbon into the soil, the microbiome, the microbiota that live in the soil, need that carbon to live, but they can't get it themselves. So they're dependent on that plant for their carbon. But what they do in this beautiful symbiosis is they then exude nutrition that the plant absorbs When you use synthetic fertilizer, so it's kind of like hard wiring to the plant, and the plants getting its nutrient from that synthetic fertilizer, it doesn't need to conduct photosynthesis anymore for that carbon. And it certainly isn't returning stuff into the microbiome. So you're not you're not while you might be fertilizing the planet, you're not fertilizing the soil. And any great farmer will tell you that what their first priority is to farm soil, not to farm plants. And then there's many other things that farmers do to build soil like composting and cover cropping. So our food is only as good. But those plants that we're talking about the animals that eat those plants are only as healthy as what they're pulling out of the soil. And as our soil degrades, and as that microbiome dies off, because there's no carbon exchange, because they're exposed to all these synthetic inputs, because there's a lot of tillage, because there's only one crop being grown there over and over and over again, the soil just is dead. It's like sand. It's like rock that's been pulverized, there's no living dynamic in it, that has weight that has other knock on effects. So for example, if you increase the soil organic matter by just 1%, so that living part of the soil by just 1% in one acre, that acre has the capacity to hold 20,000 gallons more of water. Think about farming in the wine industry in California. And the horrible drought that California has been in for seven years and many other parts of our country have been in the number one thing a farmer can do in terms of water conservation is build organic matter in your soil. You don't have root systems, if you don't have healthy soils, and you get a big downpour of rain, all that soil, all that dirt just washes off and goes into waterways. There's huge knock on effects in our water system because of so this is the whole delicate balance between climate and agriculture, and why we're recognizing that agriculture. You know, potentially the third biggest contributor to carbon can actually be a powerful tool to address climate change, because ultimately it can be a carbon accruer in our soils.
Elizabeth Stein 30:01
So regen is great for all those three things, what are the other benefits from the community, etc.
Elizabeth Candelario 30:09
Let's let's go back to talking about its impact on human health. So we all know that our food is less nutritious today than it used to be. And we have direct evidence of that. We have sky rocketing rates of diet related illness, weakened immunity and mental health issues, metabolic diseases, hypertension, depression, anxiety, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, irritable, irritable bowel syndrome, celiac, I mean, these are all diet related illnesses and disease. And there's irrefutable science now, that is connecting agricultural practices and soil health, to human health, to these health outcomes. And to anybody listening. Of course, this assertion is completely logical, healthier soils, grow healthier crops and animals. And then humans eat this healthier food and are themselves healthier. Early on, you said something about connecting the microbiome in the soil, which we just talked about, to the microbiome in our own gut, which really has so much impact, we're just learning and bodily functions that are at the heart of chronic illness. So it's not surprising that again, another metaphor, the microbiome in the soil is very much similar to how our own microbiome works. So this notion of nutrient density in food is really starting to be talked about, finally, because I think in the end, we've done a lot of talking about, wow, you know, regenerative ag, organic ag, biodynamic ag all of it. It's really great for the farm, we really need to do this, because it's really important for climate change. And gee, you know, we don't want our farm workers exposed to these terrible chemicals, and all of these things that we talk about to to people, our customers, but fundamentally, the first thing they care about, does it taste good? Is it healthy for me and my family? And I think that we haven't done as great a job talking about that, you have Elizabeth. It's like one of the core tenants of what you're what you're doing through purely Elizabeth. And that is so admirable. So we all have to start talking about health. And I have a really fun story to tell you. And it doesn't have to do with nutrition, but it does have to do with taste. And actually, taste is nature's way of telling us good taste a really great tomato from a farmer's market versus a hydroponic tomato at Safeway, you know, we know intuitively wow, I want to have that. That tomato from my grandmother's backyard, basically. So a number of years ago, I think it's like five years ago. Now, there's a group called the Society of wine economists in the United States. And they do a lot of economic research in wine. It's probably just a bunch of economists that like to drink wine. But nonetheless, the research that they do is very helpful in the wine industry. They do some really interesting reporting. And they asked a really simple question, they asked are Eco certified wines better than conventional wines. And the way that they
Elizabeth Stein 33:25
Better from a taste perspective or better for..
Elizabeth Candelario 33:28
Yeah, better from a taste perspective. It's gonna be a long time before we're talking about the nutrient impact for wine. Anyway, it was around taste. And so they want to know, do eco certified wines tastes better than conventional wines. And the way they answer that question was so simple is actually rather brilliant. They looked at 72,000 wines, all from California, that all had been rated on three 100 point scales, so any of your wine drinkers that are listening, you know, Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast wine and spirits. And they took all that data, they put it into a computer. And before I tell you what they found, let me back up a second. They defined eco certified wines is wines made either with organic or biodynamic certified grapes. Okay, so they put all that data in a computer. And what did they find? Eco certified wines scored an average of 4.2 points higher than conventional wise. Now, for those of you ever wondered, as you'll know, that's the difference between an 89 and a 94. So if you're in the grocery store, looking at a shelf talker, and you see this wine got an 89, and this one got a 94. That's a big spread. But the reason I got really excited about that, and I do think it's analogous to exactly what we're talking about right now, is that it was the first time and possibly the only study that I really know about there's a similar study with wine. We haven't really figured out how to do this with food. But there's similar study with wine in France. I suppose the first study that really connected the agricultural method to the quality of the product. And I love to talk about that study, because obviously, at some point, we're going to be able to do the same thing with nutrient density. We're just not there yet.
Elizabeth Stein 35:16
Yeah, absolutely. I was just listening, kind of to a similar conversation. I love that example, where it talks about a tomato, actually, and that the actual nutrients give off a taste profile. And so that is also what makes it taste so much more delicious. And that quality you can taste. So I can't wait to do that research on food which brings us right into how do you work with some companies like purely Elizabeth that we're so excited about let's talk about this upcoming initiative. So for those who don't know, we're announcing it today, that we have a really exciting opportunity to work with Mad ag on some research on the soil as we explore regenerative oats. So I'm going to let you talk all about the programs since we are just about to kick it off. And you're certainly the expert, but something that as a brand, we just could not be more excited to be involved with this and pushing this initiative forward.
Elizabeth Candelario 36:23
Thank you, Elizabeth. I'm so excited to talk about this. And we're so excited at Mad ag to be working with you on this program. So mad AG is a bit unique make we're really unique, because we not only have boots on the ground on farms. And so we're also doing the research on the farms. But in addition to that, through mad lands, I mean, through mad markets, we're connecting our farmers with values aligned brands, like purely Elizabeth. So we do that work, you can kind of think of that as a more of a traditional model where we'll meet purely Elizabeth and Elizabeth will say, you know, we'd like to source oats. And so we go out, and we find farmers that are growing those oats for purely Elizabeth and we set up a direct relationship between the brand and the farmer, if there's supply chain issues in the middle, we help solve them. And that gives purely Elizabeth sightlines all the way back to the farm, which is pretty unusual for national brands. Because the supply chain has gotten so long. That relationship in and of itself has so many benefits, it is great for the farmer to know who their customer is. And I can't tell you how many farmers comment on that. It's great for purely Elizabeth, because it enables that brand to tell the story of that farm where they're sourcing their ingredients. And it just creates a much more healthy relationship shortens the supply chain is more supportive of farmers. So that's a piece of it. But what purely Elizabeth is doing which is going above and beyond that is activating our research arm to compare conventionally grown oats with regenerative organic oats. And this is a research study that's going to take place over years. And these are the kinds of questions we're going to be looking into. Let's talk about nutrient density. What are the antioxidants that are in the conventional oats versus the regenerative organic oats? What's the protein? What's the mineral content? Let's talk about soil carbon. Let's see how well the soil is accumulating carbon from conventional to regenerative organic. Let's focus on soil health. Let's look at the micronutrients and microbiota exactly what we've been talking about. Let's look at soils ability to retain water and cycle carbon. We're going to look at biodiversity. We're going to look at literally look at breeding birds. We're going to count beneficial insects, other wildlife like pollinators, we're going to pay attention to moving from a monoculture which is the production of just one crop over and over to polyculture. So using those cover crops, doing the oats in a rotation in a way that whatever the oats are extracting, we're planting another following that those oats that will put those things back into the ground. And then we want to make sure we're using other regenerative practices like ensuring year round cover for the soil. We're going to be focused on less tillage less disturbance of the soil. We want to reduce water as water usage as much as possible, and of course reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. So really this research is really to validate the importance of regenerative agriculture and food quality in farm health and an eco system restoration in a way that goes way beyond just talking about it. And really actually looking at it, researching it and having the data to support it. So when surely Elizabeth goes out and talks to EU consumers, over the next couple of years, they can authentically and transparently say, this is what we're observing. These are the added benefits of regenerative organic to our product quality, our nutrition and our brand. Overall.
Elizabeth Stein 40:41
I'm so excited as you're talking through it, it's just it's so exciting. I think especially, you know, there's so much greenwashing that happens, right, that we all know and to be able to have the data and to know the true impact that this is having. And then and then to be able to replicate it. And how do we, you know, start with it's all about progress, not perfection, not saying we're not turning turning our entire supply chain into regen, because that would be a big ship to turn around. But let's start somewhere. And here's where we're starting, which is really beyond exciting.
Elizabeth Candelario 41:17
Elizabeth, it's so exciting that you're going to do this purely, Elizabeth will show the weight and many other products in the CPG companies, consumer product, good companies, food companies in the marketplace. Because, you know, there's interest in people making claims. There certainly is a growing interest in regenerative agriculture. But to really make the commitment that you're going to study it on the farm level is huge. And I know that as a leader in the natural food industry, this will help show the way for other companies that are interested in sourcing from a more regenerative supply chain.
Elizabeth Stein 41:57
So what do you anticipate from a time perspective, I know this is going to be several year project. But as we observe the soil say year one, and I know it's hard to predict of what what we'll see. But do you anticipate what the time is until we see sort of those benefits come through in the soil.
Elizabeth Candelario 42:17
Every farm is a unique individuality. So what you'll start to see is improvement, how much improvement we're going to learn together. But I like to say there's a big difference between marketplace time and biological time. And we get very impatient in the marketplace as well, we should, but things progress a little bit more slowly on the farm. So all's I can say is I am absolutely confident we're going to see improvement in those leading indicators that we just talked about how much let's do this podcast a year from now or a year after we get started? And then we can talk about that?
Elizabeth Stein 42:58
Perfect. One other question that just came up in my mind as you were talking about water this year in Canada was a huge drought. So there were 70% Less oats in the marketplace. But as you're talking about earlier on the conservation of 1% of the soil, equated holding X amount more water. So in that instance, then practicing regen would have helped mitigate some of that drought issues from the..
Elizabeth Candelario 43:30
That's a really important point that we're not only talking about farms ability to assist in the climate crisis that we're in, but in their own individual reality, to be able to have enough health and vitality in the farm system. So that when we're experiencing these extreme weather events, too much water, not enough water, fire, all of it that the farm is healthier and able to withstand those kinds of variations much better than a conventional farm. And again, it's just exactly like our own, you know, if we have a really strong immune system, versus if we don't.
Elizabeth Stein 44:14
So in that instance, then they would have a bigger crop yield. Is that accurate to say?
Elizabeth Candelario 44:21
Well, yes by definition, this is you're seeing this a lot in California and viticulture because California is such an extreme drought, there's tremendous focus on building soil carbon, because of its ability to retain water, and you'll see vineyards that are right next to each other and one that's conventionally farmed, and one that is say let's say biodynamic, I won't say who but I know exactly. I used to take pictures of this conventional vineyard that sat next to our biodynamic vineyard and it the difference is enormous. And so yeah, you absolutely see whatever the crop is the ability to really mitigate against things like drought much better than their conventional counterparts,
Elizabeth Stein 45:05
Which is we are seeing this across the world. I mean, it can be from going from a, a global problem where we don't have enough food supply, that this is therefore part of that solution. From a crop perspective and yielding of various plants.
Elizabeth Candelario 45:26
Absolutely critical. We call that climate adaptation and climate mitigation. So we're mitigating against climate by pulling carbon out of the air, putting it in the soil. Having more water in the soil brings temperatures down, it has a lot of knock on benefits. And then we're adapting by creating more resilient farms that can do fare better in these crazy climate patterns that we're having now.
Elizabeth Stein 45:52
Do you know what the statistic is of how many or the percentage of say, organic farming regen farming conventional of our land in either the US or the world, you know, is like a point to
Elizabeth Candelario 46:09
Okay, first of all, who knows what regen is because it's not a reference. And so you can't measure against it because different people are doing different. You have conventional farmers that are doing cover cropping, and composting and paying attention to soil, you'll have organic farmers that are tilling the heck out of their soil and doing the least that they need to do in order to get organic certified. So there's a big range in that, you know, 1% of total farmland in the US is organic, which is shocking. The regenerative organic certification is a blip on the screen right now, because it just launched last year, but it's growing all the time, and biodynamic. You know, I can tell you in Germany, you know, biodynamic is much more of a phenomena in Europe. And 10% of the organic farmland in Germany is biodynamic. So you know, Europe's way more ahead of the curve than we are in the US. But at Mad Ag, our goal is to convert 5 million acres of conventional farmland into regenerative organic farmland by 2030. So thank you, Elizabeth, for helping us get a step closer to that goal.
Elizabeth Stein 47:20
Absolutely. So before we get into rapid fire, what's next in in your world or agriculture?
Elizabeth Candelario 47:30
Well, I've been living in the nexus of climate, Food and Agriculture for over 15 years. And I was starting to get really discouraged. Because when you go in the grocery store, how many products are really sitting on the shelf, they're sourced from regenerative AG, I mean, it's not very much. But I'm really seeing a shift for a lot of different reasons. I mean, agriculture was always the elephant in the environmental living room. That's definitely changed over the last four or five years, and cop 26. Here in Europe, agriculture was finally on the agenda. So that shifting now what we're seeing in the last two years is a lot of impact capital showing up. So you have financial companies, investment bankers, family offices, venture capital funds, that are recognizing the risk associated with climate, and recognizing that you can't count on a balance sheet, a company, if it has sourcing issues, if it can't get supply, if it has issues in its supply chain, that's really changing because when you get the attention of capitalism, it's kind of the biggest force, we have to change marketplace. I think consumers are waking up clearly all of your consumers are very, very savvy should all US consumers be a purely Elizabeth consumer, we're going to nail this we're gonna get way past 5 million acres by 22 by 2030. But so I would just say that what I'm seeing what's next in agriculture, for me is a sense of optimism. But that is also living within a context of this tremendous sense of urgency that we really don't have that much more time. And we can motivate people through the good news, not the bad news. But personally, what motivates me and why I'm dedicating my life to this my career to this is because of that sense of urgency because I have children because I have grandchildren.
Elizabeth Stein 49:55
So much to come. Yeah. All right. Well, we're going to transition to to rapid fire q&a. The best advice you've gotten in the past six months.
Elizabeth Candelario 50:08
You know, what I've really been working on is to be a good listener. One really needs to sit in the present moment. There's this direct correlation between mindfulness and listening, between mindfulness and leadership. So I've been taking this year long course in yoga philosophy, that's really a spiritual philosophy with a strong Buddhist current. And it has given me a lot to reflect on. So that is really specific advice. But just kind of a general dawning understanding for me in my journey as a person on the planet, trying to live a more mindful life and recognizing that in worker our personal lives or whatever, that mindfulness really is the key to being a good listener and a good leader.
Elizabeth Stein 51:02
I love that. a favorite book, or mentor podcast for growth.
Elizabeth Candelario 51:09
I love that you asking me this. So I have to admit, I'm a bit of a political junkie, which is really difficult these days, I have to say, but I love the Ezra Klein Show podcast. And he recently interviewed Richard Powers, who I'm sure many of your listeners know is the author of the overstory. And it's a really lovely conversation. I'm currently reading Richard power's newest book, which is called bewilderment. That's really about how and whether we can actually see the world that we live in, and how we change our minds and how we change our societies. It's a really beautiful book. So I highly recommend the book, I highly recommend the conversation between him and as recline and I really recommend that as Ezra Kline Show podcast. You got three there in one.
Elizabeth Stein 52:06
Well, then that parlays perfect into three things that you're currently loving.
Elizabeth Candelario 52:11
Okay, guilty pleasure. I really like watching the house of dragons. I cover my eyes for all the violence, which is means I'm my eyes are covered for about half of it. But I love the fashion and jewelry. And it's just so escapist fantasy, I guess, you know, you can watch that. And then come back and read the news and say, Yeah, nobody got beheaded today. So it is really I love the 10% happier app, I use it every day, it just helps me remember, you know, if I'm not doing a real sitting practice, I can at least listen to for 10 minutes or five minutes and sit. So I use that daily. And then I'm really lucky because I live in London, and I also live in Boulder. So Mad Agriculture is located in Boulder, Colorado. I live in London, but I spend about 30% of my time in Boulder. So I consider myself very, very lucky to be able to live in both places.
Elizabeth Stein 53:08
Favorite Words To Live By?
Elizabeth Candelario 53:10
You know my father who I adore, who has been gone for these last 10 years, but still who lives so fully in me once told me when I was in high school, and I was really in trouble. I won't tell you why I was really in trouble as well in trouble. And he didn't get mad at me or anything he just said, he said that. The truth will set you free. And truer words were never spoken. Because the truth will set you free really cause women to strive to live authentically. And so that's really, for me the best words to live by.
Elizabeth Stein 53:47
I feel happiest when
Elizabeth Candelario 53:50
when I get to have conversations like with people like you, Elizabeth who cares so deeply and think so deeply about these issues that are impacting our world. Nothing makes me happier. I have completely enjoyed this conversation.
Elizabeth Stein 54:04
Me too. And lastly, what is your number one non negotiable to thrive on your wellness journey?
Elizabeth Candelario 54:12
Oh, I just don't do anything that I don't believe in any more
Elizabeth Stein 54:15
Love that. Well, Elizabeth, thank you so much for this conversation. This was just such a wealth of information that you had and so excited for our partnership and so excited to have you back on in a year. And we can see where we are with things and I don't know, maybe we can have some lucky listener come with us to the farm when it's time.
Elizabeth Candelario 54:38
That's a great idea Elizabeth, and thank you so much for having me in this conversation with you today. I've just thoroughly enjoyed it.
Elizabeth Stein 54:45
Thanks so much for joining me and live purely with Elizabeth. I hope you feel inspired to thrive on your wellness journey. If you enjoy today's episode, don't forget to rate subscribe and review. You can follow us on Instagram at To purely_elizabeth to catch up on all the latest See you next Wednesday on the podcast