Keys to successful regenerative farm transition, with Andre Antunes

I have to admit, there is an unsung hero behind many of my favorite interviews of the past couple years. Connections and recommendations to some of the people who I’ve learned the most from in some recent discussions with people like Phyllis Van Ambraugh, Ben Taylor Davies, Ian Robertson, Ed Brown, and others have all come from a good friend of mine Andre Antunes who you’ll finally get to know on this episode. I met Andre first in a car ride with our mutual friend and the co-founder of Climate Farmers, Philippe Birker, on our way to the first ever company team retreat at a little farm near Dijon in France. Andre and I immediately hit it off for our mutual love of learning from cutting edge innovators in the regenerative space, and his personal experience working as a veterinarian and professional market gardener gave him a grounded perspective on farming that a lot of advocates in this movement are lacking.

Since that first meeting we’ve been in close contact as we both work closely with farmers in the company network to assist them in their transition to regenerative management of their farms, and Andre has gone on to manage large transition projects with multinational companies which you’ll hear about very soon. He has also traveled all over Europe making connections in the industry, attending events, and visiting renowned farmers around the continent, always facilitating connections and collaborations, many of which have led to partnerships and events with Climate Farmers. At this point he is becoming one of the best known consultants for regenerative farming in Portugal and I finally made the time to catch up with him for today’s episode. In this discussion we cover a lot of ground from the unique journey he’s taken to get to where he is now, all of the influences and mentors that he has learned from and worked alongside to build up his knowledge and skills, stories from the farmers he works with and the projects he’s helping to advance in places like the Azores islands, and much more. Together we look into trends and hurdles in the regen ag movement in Europe as a way of checking in with how far the movement has come in recent years as well as identifying where we still need to focus efforts to continue to make progress. All in all I’m just thrilled to be able to highlight Andre and his work here because he has also been an invaluable mentor and friend to me and is one of those people who I’m never surprised to find working behind the scenes of some of the most inspiring and innovative projects of recent years.