Analisa Winther

Fernando Russo is the co-founder of Meraki Impact, a single family office from Brazil dedicated to investments in regenerative agriculture, forest and the future of sustainable food production. Guided by venture philanthropy, Meraki Impact has made dozens of investments in technology to enable the scale of regenerative agriculture and in large scale regenerative agriculture farms in Latin America and Europe.

In this episode, we discuss Fernando's uncommon career path. He used to work for Playboy and AB InBev before he pivoted to food. We also explain what regenerative agriculture is, the industry's potential, and technology enablers. Fernando also explains how they use the venture philanthropy model to invest in pioneering startups as well as grassroots initiatives, especially related to regenerating the Amazon rain forest.

⁠Join the newsletterr⁠

In 2007, journalist Teun van de Keuken turned himself in for eating chocolate. He claimed that by buying chocolate he was benefiting from child slavery and he wasn’t wrong. The cocoa supply chain is shaped like an hourglass. The chain starts with millions of farmers that produce cocoa and ends with the billions of consumers like us that enjoy chocolate. But what about the bit in between? This section is dominated by a small group of chocolate giants that profit from keeping the cocoa purchasing price as low as possible. For the farmers, this creates a poverty trap that leads to illegal child labor and modern slavery. From this revelation, Tony’s Chocolonely was born. By raising awareness with great marketing, leading by example in producing their own chocolate, and inspiring others to act with initiatives like the Open Chain they aim to make 100% slave free chocolate the industry norm. Today’s episode is an awesome example of how a strong vision can shift an industry. I sit down with Joke Aerts to discuss how Tony's got started, how the chocolate supply chain works, the power of transparency and collaborations, and how we can make 100% slave free chocolate the industry norm.

When it comes to the solving the climate crisis, food is a big part of the puzzle. Food is responsible for 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions, but historically it hasn’t been in the spotlight of climate conversations. In today’s episode, I speak with Brent Loken who is the Global Food Lead Scientist for the World Wildlife Fund. We discuss the power each country has to create food system transformation. All of these natural climate solutions fit together to create an exponential roadmap for solving the Great Food Puzzle and reaching the biodiversity, climate, and health goals we’ve set as an international community.

The Kogis escaped colonization by retreating high up into the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of Colombia. This is nothing short of a miracle. Their ancient, indigenous culture has been preserved since pre-Colombian times giving us a glimpse of what life would have been like when the Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs ruled and we interacted with the world in another way. They recently started traveling and connecting with us – The Little Brothers as they like to call us – to raise awareness about climate change, biodiversity loss, and the need for us to come together and create a new, third world that brings together indigenous wisdom with modern science and technology. In today’s episode, I speak with Lucas Buchholz who has written a book for the Kogi and traveled the world with them as their translator. We discuss the Kogi’s message and what a food system that supports life looks like from their point of view.

A big thank you to Mac Krol for sponsoring this episode.

Episode Transcript