Innovative marketing and sales strategies for farms: Expert panel 10

Welcome to the 10th of the monthly expert panel discussions. As I mentioned before, each month I’ll be hosting discussions and debates between some of the most prominent voices in regenerative agriculture, soil science, restoration land management and more. In this session I hosted a discussion on innovative marketing and sales models for farms with my friends and colleagues at Climate Farmers, a non-profit organization working to build the infrastructure to scale regenerative agriculture in Europe. In this panel I invited Alfonzo Guzman, the former head of the Alvelal cooperative in the Altiplano region of Spain and Stefan Sobkowiak of Miracle Farm and the Permaculture Orchard film. Each of them come from a background in regenerative agroforestry systems, but that’s where most of the similarities end. Alfonzo has helped to organise a growing network of farmers in one of the fastest desertifying regions of Europe to transition to regenerative farming practices by planting profitable tree species that do well in dry regions like almonds and focusing on restoring soil health and integrating animals. Through the creation of the Almendrehesa brand of regeneratively produced almonds, they’ve helped to significantly increase farmer earnings so they can reinvest in their natural capital and local communities. Stefan on the other hand is working at a much smaller scale and for decades has demonstrated innovative ways, not only to bring holistic health and biodiversity back to the conventional orchard that he has revived using permaculture methods, but has also pioneered a U-pick business models that focuses on the experiences and relationships that customers have with his farm. In this discussion, both Alfonzo and Stefan go into great detail, not only about how their farm operations and businesses work, but also the challenges that they’ve overcome along the ways and the unique aspects of their management that have helped them stand out from the competition and increase their sales and profits as well. I will give one disclaimer that the audio quality in this chat isn’t the best. I’ve done my best to clean things up, but bear with me through some rough connection issues. Think of it as a bit of turbulence on the flight, but don’t worry I’ll get us to our destination safely. Don’t forget that if you want to hear the full, unedited version of this interview with the entire Q&A session at the end, be sure to check out the different subscription options on the Regenerative Skills Patreon page. Get the resource packet for this episode! Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links: https://miracle.farm/ https://miracle.farm/pruning-demo/ https://www.alvelal.net/ Check out previous expert panels https://regenerativeskills.com/how-to-make-and-analyse-high-quality-compost-expert-panel-8/ https://regenerativeskills.com/how-to-repair-the-hydrological-cycle-of-a-landscape-expert-panel-7/ https://regenerativeskills.com/the-broad-applications-of-the-holistic-management-framework-expert-panel-6/