Etienne Compagnon Podcasts

In this episode I discuss with Claire Lemarié her experience working with farmers in the Pays de la Loire region in France, where she is a technical adviser for the chamber of agriculture. She has precious insights into the management of mature hedges, as this region still has a significant amount of bocage: a traditional french hedge layout. In th…

Coppicing is an ancient and modern tree management system. Coppicing is known for its multi-functionality: capable of producing biomass, animal forage, firewood and much more. Today we interview Mark Krawczyk, practitioner, consultant and author of 'Coppice Agroforestry'. In this interview we tackle some of the practical challenges of coppicing, to…

Bruce Maynard and his family are livestock managers and row crop farmers in New South Wales in Austalia. Over his carreer, he has succesfully integrated shrubs and trees to their livestock and row crop operation. He has been able to double his stocking rate through increasing the ecological function of the farm. We dig deep into the design of his t…

What have we learnt from 30 years at one of the most prominent agroforestry research sites in the world? In collaboration with AGROMIX, We are excited to present an interview with Christian Dupraz, a leading agroforestry researcher from INRAE Montpellier. This is one of our rare 'in person' interviews where we discussed years of findings under the …

Conventional viticulture and its intensive management has created some important challenges for wine producers and the regions where they are located. Jean-Baptiste Cordonnier has been able to intimately experience the conventional approach, seeing the fertility and biodiversity of his family's château gradually degrade. For the first time since th…

I am today with Richard Perkins from Ridgedale Farm in Sweden. For those who do not know, Richard is a leading educator and author in the field of regenerative agriculture, specialising in human scale enterprises. We discuss the tree systems he has planted on his farm, and more specifically the opportunity of integrating trees to market gardening a…

Today we continue investigating Syntropic Farming with Daniel from the Mata do Lobo farm in Brasil. In the past 4 years, they have been working solutions to scale these complex agroforestry systems, soon reaching 50ha planted. Daniel and his partner, Maria Vittoria, have accumulated some tremendous experience as they build one of the most innovativ…

David Brass is the CEO of the Lakes Free range egg company. Almost 30 years ago he started planting trees in the fields to encourage his laying hens to go and range. Since then, he has been busy planting trees throughout his supply chain. With about 70 farmers and 2 million birds supplying eggs to his company today, this is an example of agroforest…

Our team attended the Regenerative Agriculture and Food Systems Summit, organised by Kiasko Research in order to catalyse a regenerative transition in the food industry. The event was attended by large corporations such as Nestle, Unilever and Yara, as well as numerous companies and organisations that work actively with Regen Ag on the ground. We a…

Mark Shepard is the founder of the Restoration Agriculture farming method and New Forest Farm, where Mark grows food in perennial polycultures, without using external fertilisers, with very limited management activities, whilst integrating animals. In this episode, Mark shares with us the results he has achieved by actively engaging with tree crop …

Michael Weitz is a European expert in fast growing biomass trees, with a special passion for Poplar. These fast growing crops are especially interesting for agroforestry systems thanks to their early returns and their capacity to produce ecosystem services early on. Furthermore, the need to find alternatives to fossil fuels and sustainable building…

Syntropic Farming has recently gained international attention, and it is about time we interview an expert on the podcast! Whilst I call him an expert, Marc Leiber prefers to see himself as a student of Syntropic Farming. He has been trained by Ernst Gotsch, the founder of the movement, and continues to work intimately with him on his farm, Quinta …

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Patrick Worms on the show. He is a policy advisor for World Agroforestry and the ex-president of the European Agroforestry Federation. We discuss together agroforestry from a policy perspective to understand how we convince decision makers and what type of funding is needed to scale agroforestry. Although much…

Thomas Lecomte and Guillaume Sneessens are agronomists and experts in the field of regenerative agriculture. Through Soil Capital Farming, they both manage and consult a significant amount of acreage. Thomas and Guillaume both see an important role of agroforestry for their clients, integrating more and more perennial systems in farm transitions. W…

I talk with Felix Riecken who is planting out silvopastoral and silvoarable systems on his 90ha family farm in the North of Germany. The farm traditionally produces cow milk and meat. He explains the journey that led him to agroforestry and integrating these techniques into the family business. His systems being still quite young, we focus the conv…

As Dimitri and I travelled recently to the 2022 EURAF conference in Sardinia, we wanted to share with you the work of the European Agroforestry Federation. In this short interview with their president, Patrick Worms, he explains what the organisation does and its next steps. We also discuss how we can build additional bridges between research and p…

Campbell Mercer owns 40ha outside Melbourne, Australia where he has set up a world class olive farm - producing award winning organic olive oil. Campbell uses a variety of fascinating agroforestry practices, from windbreaks to farm forestry and silvopastural systems. We have an in-depth conversation on small scale farm forestry, from design conside…

My guest today is Carl Sheard who produces pigs in France. He has received EU funding for his project so we try and understand with him what kind of opportunity it offers farmers in Europe. He also shares some of the challenges he has encountered with deers and we assess together the potential for increasing the proportion of perennials in pigs’s d…

Andrew and Jill Stewart are owners and managers of Yan Yan Gurt West Farm in the Otway Ranges, Southern Victoria, Australia. For the past 30 years, they have taken regenerative agriculture extremely seriously in order to solve problems of soil salinisation, soil erosion, climate change and animal welfare. In order to do so they have planted 23kms o…

Fred Provenza is a researcher in behavioural ecology who has carried out fascinating research on the nutritional wisdom of animals, on their ability to select their diet and learn. We explore with him the practical implications of his research. He explains why a biodiverse landscape is crucial to animal health and what tools we have to favour such …

Federico San Bonifacio is the owner and farm manager of a 30ha farm in the plains of Verona, Northern Italy. For 12 years he has been engaging in an agroecological transition where trees and shrubs play a fundamental role. Breaking the monotony of the surrounding corn and soy plots, he has planted hedges in long strips to provide the ecosystem serv…

Today I talk with Kaitie Adams, she leads the Savanna Institute's Illinois Demonstration Farm program and helps build community through agroforestry education across the state and beyond. Kaitie and I explore together how they build relationships with different stakeholders to make agroforestry projects become a reality in the mid-west. We engage w…

Scott and Sandy Williams got involved in farming after acquiring 500 acres of productive land in Illinois, USA. After meeting the Savannah Institute, they were inspired to transition their land towards conservation agriculture, with a keen interest in agroforestry systems. This interviews delves into the 17 acre perennial polyculture project they p…

Eric Toensmeir is the author of The Carbon Farming Solution among other great books on agroforestry and perennial crops. The first part of the interview is focused on understanding the carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry, focusing especially on silvopasture. We then move on to discussing the challenges we are faced with to shift towards …

We have the pleasure of welcoming back Brett Chedzoy on the podcast. While last time we dedicated much of the conversation to transforming woods into a productive silvopasture, this time we focus on planting trees into pasture. We go into a lot of depth into the design of such plantations as well as their management implications. We conclude the in…

Francis Bucaille is a leader in the field of agronomy. Farmer, consultant, educator, author and owner of Gaiago, he has built a reputation nuancing some of the commonly held beliefs of regenerative agricultural practices. As a soil expert he talks about the key principles of agroecology, why fungi and lignin are so important, and how trees can help…

Dr Lindsay Whistance is a Livestock Researcher at the Organic Research Center in the UK. Through her extensive knowledge of silvopasture, she enables us to see agroforestry from the animal’s perspective. Trees can provide livestock with shelter, food, medicine and even encourage social interactions between animals. These benefits are not only impor…

After many years of experimentation, Jaime Elizondo is scaling his leucaena silvopasture system in order to increase his stocking rate from 3 to 6 cattle units per hectare: doubling his profitability. This bold statement has been made by one of the most experienced regenerative graziers we know of, and shouldn't be taken lightly. Beyond improving h…

Ben Raskin is Head of Horticulture and Agroforestry at the Soil Association. He is also working at Eastbrook Farm in the UK, where he is overseeing the implementation of various agroforestry systems over the last few years, mainly focused on silvopasture. Ben gives us some detailed feedback on these first years on the farm : the design of the diffe…

Francisco Alves manages 700ha of montado, a traditional agroforestry system of Southern Europe, with herds of cattle, goats, sheep and the famous Alentejo pig. His experience at Herdade Sao Luis exposes us to the future of recently planted silvopastural systems. We discuss important topics such as how mature trees interact with pasture, the optimum…

We have an extremely practical conversation with Tom Wahl, co-founder of the Red Fern Farm, convincing us he has developed a very functional and economic system. The team there has chosen a variety of rustic crops that need little care, are high in demand, and picked by the customers themselves. Planted on fantastic soil for growing trees and you h…

Farms are an expression of a climate, soil and farmer's potential. All need to be considered in order to create holistically functional systems. Reaching this depth is a complex task, but thanks to the work of innovators like Darren Doherty we have tools and techniques that help us make smarter decisions. This episode deals with the big picture: th…

We have a discussion with Fabien Balaguer, director of L'association Française d’Agroforesterie (AFAF) where Fabien provides an overview of where agroforestry is at today in France. This is a great episode to understand the methodology l’AFAF is using to scale agroforestry but also to understand the specific challenges that come with that mission. …

There are many claims that agroforestry can benefit ecosystem services and biodiversity. Delving into the nuance of this subject, we start our journey with Tom Staton, PhD student at Reading University, who has been conducting research in the UK at some of the farms who's farm managers we have interviewed on the show. Tom has been measuring insect …

Matteo Mazzola from Iside Farm, Koen van Seijen from Investing in The Regenerative Agriculture podcast and your host Dimitri (founder of Mazi Farm) sat down to answer one of the most prominent questions we received whilst reaching out to you: how to get started farming. Matteo and Dimitri have both been through the process of creating a farm and ed…

We have a conversation with Oliver Hanke from 12Tree finance to understand what scaling agroforestry looks like. With 160 million $ already invested in 12 projects, 12Tree is bringing large investors into agroforestry. We go into some detail on their largest project in Guatemala to understand its implementation. We understand who is investing in ag…

One of the pillars of agroforestry is the production of timber as a product of farmers. Rowan has been working for the past 30 years as an academic and farmer, developing a unique approach to agroforestry. He explains the importance of timber on farms, firstly as a key tool for conservation and sustainability objectives, and only secondly as a vali…

Garrett Miller has an unconventional path into agriculture, starting his farm at 22 and growing it into an extremely diverse enterprise since then. From cider production and a cider house, to strawberries and agrotourism, we were extremely interested in asking him questions about how he manages his business. Diversity is an inherent part of agrofor…

In our previous interviews with Iain Tolhurst (#10) and David Wolfe (#6), both mentioned the research undertook by the Organic Research Center on their farms. We really wanted to go one step further and understand what came out of these research projets. The result is a great interview with Sally Westaway and Jo Smith where we discuss interactions …

One of the key questions we are trying to answer is 'in what contexts does agroforestry work, or doesn't'. Dan started intercropping grains between his pecans before he knew it was called agroforestry, because it made sense to him at the time. The first part of the interview focuses on the business strategy of the farm. Whilst providing many tips a…

We have the pleasure of talking with Josh Heyneke from Parc Carreg in Wales. In just 4 years Josh and his partner Abi have achieved a lot and we dig deep into his main enterprise : pastured duck eggs. Because they have quite a small acreage they have stacked enterprises and we wanted to understand the interactions between them. We get a detailed un…

Another fascinating interview with a leader and pioneer in the field. Stephen Briggs, managing Whitehall Farm in the UK, delves into the details of his apple intercropping system, and shows us how his farm operation has benefited from the positive interactions of his trees and his arable crops. He is convinced of the strategic benefits agroforestry…

In this episode Steve Gabriel shares with us his experience on Wellspring Forest Farm, focusing on his sheep silvopasture system. Steve has used the different ecological niches present on his land to build up various enterprises and has refused to separate productions, preferring rather to take advantage of interactions and edge effects. You'll fin…

In this episode, Brett Chedzoy shares with us his extensive experience practicing and teaching silvopasture. Brett clearly discussed some of the key issues, challenges and opportunities associated with silvopasture. We spent quite some time covering the importance of rotational grazing and how silvopasture differs from pasture grazing. We cover spe…

Paula and Valter share with us how they are designing and implementing complex agroforestry systems. They put an emphasis on creating flexible, modular designs which fit the needs and preferences of local farmers. We talk with them through some key points of their work such as the role of mechanisation, how they plan economically viable systems and…

In this episode, Iain Tolhurst explains why and how he integrated trees in his vegetable operation. It's interesting to get a clear image of what his tree layout looks like, and what this means in term on infrastructure and management. He has tested planting perennial crops in the tree understory, a tempting idea that encounters some practical and …

In this episode, Pierre shares with us his work at the Bois de Rode Bos, where he is experimenting with tree varieties to find the most adapted ones to the evolving Belgian climate. It is amazing to realise the genetic diversity that we are not familiar with and the potential it can offer for agricultural production, yet at the same time we underst…

In this episode we talk with Christian Shearer and Sarah Baxendell from Regen Network to understand how they are monitoring the ecological outcomes of farming practices and offering an additional income stream to farmers who are regenerating land. These type of tools are crucial to scaling agroforestry as they help make ecologically sound practices…

In this episode, we have the pleasure to talk with Ryan Zinn from the company Dr Bronner. We explore with him how they are using multistrata agroforestry to transform their supply chains in order to increase their resilience and the improve the livelihood of the farmers they work with. We are able to understand why such a company is investing in re…

In this episode we have the chance to interview the manager of Wakelyns Farm, amongst the oldest agroforestry systems in Europe. David gives us a great insight into what a fully running agroforestry system looks like. We get into understanding the decisions involved when managing mature trees, what tradeoffs arise with time, and how to balance thei…