S6 Ep19: Moving Towards a More Resilient & Regenerative Farm Model with Nina Mannheimer
“It’s super important not to define regenerative agriculture as this ultra-advanced way of doing agriculture— we define it more through the measures that are being applied rather than the state that a farmer is at.” — Nina Mannheimer
Industrial agriculture has been the backbone of food production for decades, but it is now being challenged by a new approach— regenerative agriculture. This method of farming has been gaining traction in recent years due to its potential for positive system change and its scientific foundation. It is also being supported by new agritech platforms that are making it easier to implement and track progress.
Regenerative agriculture is not just about improving the environment, but also creating a sustainable business case for farmers. This became the mission of one company. By focusing on soil health and other elements of sustainability, regenerative agriculture can create a more resilient agricultural system that will benefit both people and the planet.
This week, Justine sits with Nina Manheimer, a founding member of Klim Foods. Nina is a true champion for regenerative agriculture and her work at Klim Foods is a testament to her commitment to making a positive impact on our planet. As the Chief Product Officer and climate strategist, she is dedicated to the development of products that can help reduce environmental damage while also promoting climate-friendly agriculture. Nina understands that in order to make meaningful change, it is essential to communicate the importance of sustainable practices and educate consumers on the benefits they can bring.
Join in as Justine and Nina talk about how we can scale regenerative agriculture and magnify its impact, why we should define “regenerative” through the systems applied instead of where the farmer is at, how regenerative agriculture provides the key to human health and environmental sustainability, how to navigate the rough terrains of starting your business, why human element is important in a world of tech, how to help both farmers and companies make a smooth transition towards a regenerative future, and much more!
Connect with Nina:
Nina works as the Chief Product Officer and sustainability strategist at Klim Foods. She is dedicated to the development of products that make a difference and is passionate about networking with like-minded individuals working towards a better planet.
Connect with Klim Foods:
Episode Highlights:
02:09 Defining Regenerative Agriculture
05:26 Soil Health— The Key to Environmental and Human Health
09:04 What to Expect When You Start Building a Business
14:48 Incorporating Tech
18:25 Short Term vs Long Term Rewards
Tweets:
With its promise of improved sustainability and profitability for farmers, regenerative agriculture is becoming increasingly popular among stakeholders in the agricultural industry. Learn how you can be a part of this global movement with @jreichman and Klim Food’s CPO, Nina Mannheimer. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #KlimFoods #regenerativeagriculture #soilhealth #climateprotection #climatechange #climatefriendly #farming #food #womenleaders #business
Inspirational Quotes:
02:39 “We think about these questions a lot but we also make sure not to let them slow us down. Our focus is on helping all farmers transition towards a more soil and climate-friendly way of doing agriculture." —Nina Mannheimer
03:28 “It's super important not to define regenerative agriculture as this ultra-advanced way of doing agriculture— we define it more through the measures that are being applied rather than the state that a farmer is at." —Nina Mannheimer
10:12 “It's a very scrappy place to be in the beginning. But it's a fun and exciting time also. You push yourself to do things you never thought you could do. They're completely out of your comfort zone, but equally exciting and inspiring." —Justine Reichman
12:26 “I think that's a sign that you have great timing when the first couple of months are super hard because no one knows what you're talking about and all of a sudden everyone knows what you're talking about.” —Nina Mannheimer
19:46 “Once you start seeing some small positive results, you start getting more confident and then it snowballs into this bigger thing." —Nina Mannheimer
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman Welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman, with me today is Nina Mannheimer, Co-Founder and CPO of Klim. Welcome, Nina.
Nina Mannheimer Hi. Great to be here.
Justine Reichman Great to have you here. I'm so glad to get to chat with you and learn about Klim and you. So welcome.
Nina Mannheimer Yeah. I'm excited.
Justine Reichman So, you know, for those not familiar with Klim, would you be able to just give us a little overview before we dive deep into this?
Nina Mannheimer Yes, of course. So we are a startup based in Berlin on a mission to scale regenerative agriculture. So we really see ourselves as what we call a digital companion for farmers looking to transition to regenerative agriculture. And our approach is to help farmers overcome the hurdles that they're currently facing in that transition. So we did a lot of research at the beginning, and really try to understand what is currently stopping farmers from making that step and that's how we build the platform really helping them every step of the way. That's why we call it a companion, really looking also at the human and behavior side of things to make sure that farmers actually make the transition that is so important for all of us.
Justine Reichman Wow,that's great and what a great mission to have.
Nina Mannheimer Yeah. It's a good one to rally people around. You can say one sentence, which is always nice.
Justine Reichman And I like the idea of having a companion that's going to be able to assist me in these things. Right? It's so well meaning as well. So, you know, before we get going, I'd love to hear from you. Because I've had this conversation with a variety of different people and there seems to be some nuance to the definition of what, you know, regenerative agriculture is, and I'd love to hear from you, and what your interpretation or how you're defining it.
“We think about these questions a lot but we also make sure not to let them slow us down. Our focus is on helping all farmers transition towards a more soil and climate-friendly way of doing agriculture." —Nina Mannheimer
Nina Mannheimer Yeah, definitely. So I think sometimes, you know, sometimes that whole question around how to define it seems to, you know, put a whole pause button on the entire movement, because if you don't know how to define it, how can you know, how can you scale it. I think it is a super important question. But I also think it's important not to get lost in the details. You know, there's a lot of debate around, is this regenerative? Is that regenerative? When is a farmer regenerative? And I think, you know, for us, we think about these questions a lot but we also make sure not to let them slow us down. So for us, our focus is really on helping all farmers transition towards a more soil and climate friendly way of doing agriculture. So when we started, we saw that there's a lot of companies helping very progressive farmers. So for instance in the US, where you are, there's a lot of really amazing, really progressive, super advanced farmers that everyone would call regenerative. And they're doing what I would say is amazing pioneering work, like showing others how to do it, creating a sense of hope and optimism and sort of having these great examples. But the reality is that most farmers aren't there yet. So for us, it's super important not to define regenerative agriculture as this ultra advanced way of doing agriculture as sort of, you know, I've heard especially in the US context, a lot of people say it's sort of like organic plus or the next organic or something like that. For us, it's not that. For us, a group of measures that enable farmers to build up soil health, that's why I think the term regenerative is still true, even though a lot of people criticize it, restore soil health, and thereby also have a positive impact on the climate. And we really define it more through the measures that are being applied, rather than the state that a farmer is at. So in our case, a farmer doesn't have to be super advanced and progressive to be part of Klim and start the transition.We really care about moving everyone along that spectrum of soil health and climate friendliness.
Justine Reichman So you're trying to make it accessible?
Nina Mannheimer Exactly. So we're trying to make it accessible in terms of how difficult it is, and also in terms of how affordable it is and the pace that farmers can do the transition.
“It's super important not to define regenerative agriculture as this ultra-advanced way of doing agriculture— we define it more through the measures that are being applied rather than the state that a farmer is at." —Nina Mannheimer
Justine Reichman Right. Because I think that as you said, it can be daunting and it can be overwhelming. And so for what I'm hearing from you is that this companion and make it more accessible, and can walk people through this process in a more accessible, friendly, affordable way.
Nina Mannheimer Exactly. And we're really thinking about you know how to drive long term systemic change. So how can we really, not only make it accessible, but actually make all farmers or most farmers apply these measures rather than creating sort of a perfect environment but I will only be able to engage a tiny, tiny fraction of farmers because it's just so complicated.
Justine Reichman Right. So I'm curious what inspired you to kind of found this rate mission driven business?
Nina Mannheimer Yeah. So I have to admit that at the beginning, we weren't even exclusively looking at agriculture. It seems crazy now, because now we're so deep in agriculture. But at the very beginning, my Co-Founder, Rob, who had been sort of-- who had been thinking about the idea for longer than I had, he was really focused on this idea of carbon sequestration. So he just looked at the climate goals and saw that there is no way we can reach the 1.5 degree goal without actively storing carbon. So you know, we can reduce as much as we can, even if we stopped, you know, flying and doing everything, there's no way that we can reach the goal if we're not also sucking Co2 out of the atmosphere. So he was really passionate about starting something in that space, specifically. And regenerative agriculture happens to be one of the most powerful ways to store Co2 actively. So that's how he got into that space, originally. I came from a completely different direction. I was really interested in permaculture. I'm a huge foodie. So I was really interested in just how to grow food sustainably that tastes really well. So I was much more in the sort of niche world of permaculture, small farms, really high end food production. And then we met and started chatting and to be honest, until I met him, I haven't even realized how big the potential is in regenerative agriculture when it comes to climate protection. And it's really bringing these two things together, the the huge impact and climate aspect, but also this idea of how do we just make our foods more nutrient rich and better and more sustainable overall, that's really how we came together and decided to start something in the space.
Justine Reichman Wow. So what has it been like to build a business. Where you and Rob friends first, or were you colleagues?
Nina Mannheimer No. So we met through our referral-- through the network of our first investor. So we met and then we spent a few months just chatting, you know, we always call it co founder dating. It's sort of like this sort of awkward courtship, where you're asking lots of questions and really getting to know each other and then it was after, I think, four or five months that we decided to actually do it together. And then also our third Co-Founder, Adiv, then joined.
Justine Reichman So were you looking to build a separate startup at this time? You say Co-Founder dating so it sounds like you guys were each doing your own startups?
Nina Mannheimer No, I meant, like Co-Founder dating isn't like trying to figure out whether you want--
Justine Reichman Oh, okay. Got it.
Nina Mannheimer As a Co-Founder, no. So Rob was already super set on starting the business. He had been working on the whole scientific model and like the just figuring out, like, how can you actually create a startup in the space. Because it's not immediately obvious how that can even turn into a startup model. So he was really figuring out, on a high level, is it even possible and if so, how? And I mean, I was figuring it out. I wasn't entirely sure whether my next step was going to be founding my own startup, or whether my next step was going to be joining an existing startup, and then it was only through, you know, through meeting him and through these really intense, long conversations in that period, that it really made sense to me to do it.
Justine Reichman Got it. I understand. And so you guys came together, and he built this startup. And so what was that like for you, did you guys sort of iron out, like where your skill sets lie and how you're going to then develop this business together?
Nina Mannheimer Yeah. I mean, I think the division of labor was really clear from the start. I mean, you know, at the beginning, everyone does a little bit of everything, right? Like there's no one to do anything. So I remember, Adiv, our third Co- Founder was the CTO, you know, Adiv and I were just building the first version of our platform together. He was doing all of the engineering work and I was doing all of the design, product, content, everything work. And it looks horrendous, because I'm not a great designer. I used to work at a really like fancy, nice design agency. So I knew what great design looked like and I knew that it wasn't what I was doing. But, you know, I think it's a great way to get started. I think, you know, you shouldn't let your lack of skills or capacities stop you because it was such a great learning experience for us in terms of just getting the first thing out there. But then from, yeah, from then on, it's also been a great journey to continuous then start to hire people who actually know what they're doing in their respective fields. So it's definitely-- it's I mean, I love the beginning, but I think every phase has a different creative element about it.
Justine Reichman Yeah. I think it is. It's a very scrappy place to be in the beginning. And I think it's really fun, exciting, and exciting time, also, right? And you really push yourself to do things you never thought you could do. They're completely out of your comfort zone. But equally, it's really exciting and inspiring.
Nina Mannheimer Yeah. And I also feel like at the beginning, every day matters so muc. I remember every single day you come home, and you feel like you've built another part of the platform, or you've done another day of just speaking to farmers and understanding them. Like, every day, the sort of incremental value of every day is so high at the beginning and that alone, I think, is such a huge energy booster and motivational factor.
“It's a very scrappy place to be in the beginning. But it's a fun and exciting time also. You push yourself to do things you never thought you could do. They're completely out of your comfort zone, but equally exciting and inspiring." —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman Yeah. So now, when did you guys start this business?
Nina Mannheimer We started in the summer of 2020.
Justine Reichman 2020. So talk to me about some of the growing pains?
Nina Mannheimer Yeah. I mean, you know, at the beginning, we kept thinking, why is no one in the space. I mean, first of all, the impact is enormous. It's so fun to work with farmers. You know, for me, like, you know, really having the product lens on, it's so amazing to build a digital product but that has consequences on real soil. I think, you know, it's so great. So at the beginning, we were really confused. And then, as we kept going forward, we kept hitting some walls and facing new complexities and seeing, you know, all these moving pieces like regulation is constantly moving. At the beginning, you know, how companies approached the topic and like food, corporate was constantly moving. And they weren't particularly interested at the very beginning. And I mean, that's changed so much in such a short period of time. It's really hard to imagine nowadays that food corporates didn't care, but they didn't care that much back in the day. And there were just so many moving pieces and so much complexity that after a while, we were like, Oh, no one was doing what we're doing. So I think that was a big one. But thankfully, a lot of that has changed. I think, you know, there's a lot more awareness, a lot more interest, a lot more focus, much more budgets flowing into the space. So I think we were really lucky. I think that's a sign that you have great timing, when the first couple of months are super hard, because no one knows what you're talking about and your in everyone all of a sudden knows what you're talking about. So I think that I was just very lucky for us in terms of timing.
“I think that's a sign that you have great timing when the first couple of months are super hard because no one knows what you're talking about and all of a sudden everyone knows what you're talking about.” —Nina Mannheimer
Justine Reichman Was there a moment when you realize where like, people are finally understanding what we're doing?
Nina Mannheimer Yeah, definitely. There were definitely some moments. So I mean, one of the best things for us was when the Netflix documentary Kiss the Ground came out. We got so many job applications. And then so many people I spoke to who said, Oh, yeah, I, you know, I watched Kiss the Ground. And I thought what a great mission. I want to do something in regenerative agriculture. And then I Googled regenerative agriculture startups, and I found you. And so that was amazing for hiring. And also I would say, we really noticed it in investor conversations. At the very, very beginning, when we started speaking to investors shortly after we started the company, only very few had even heard about the topic. And you know, at the beginning, you have these 30 minute intro calls. We had to spend 2025 minutes explaining regenerative agriculture, and then only had five minutes to explain why we were so great. And it was super stressful. And we never felt like we had enough time. And then it was roughly a year later, when we were or when was it, like, yeah, maybe roughly a year later when we started fundraising again for our next round. All of a sudden, you know, lots of investors were like, totally caught up around what the benefits of regenerative are and why they should invest in that space and it saves us loads of time. And we can actually focus on what our value is and, you know, how great the team is, rather than just explaining the basics of regenerative agriculture. So that was definitely something where we just felt, wow, it's really changed very quickly.
Justine Reichman Wow, it must have the felt amazing.
Nina Mannheimer Yeah. It was a big relief. And of course, you know, there's sort of this big hype around the space. But for us, of course, it's, I mean, it's a very justified hype. And, you know, there's so much positive impact to be done here. So we're just super happy to seeing-- to see it grow in all directions.
Justine Reichman And so now that you've raised some money, you have some talent, what does it look like for Klim for the future, for the next few years? Now that you've used the app or you've used the service and people have their companion, what's the feedback like?
Nina Mannheimer Yeah. So the feedback has been really great. So we launched the first version of the app in around April, May 2021. So it's been almost two years now. And it's just been, you know, such a growth curve. What we're really noticing is that compared to a lot of other companies, we really place a lot of emphasis on the human. And I mean, that's such a, you know, sounds like such a cliche thing to say, because all design is meant to be user, you know, user centric and user experience is a huge thing. But actually, when you look at agricultural products, I don't think that that's often the case. I think a lot of them are either technology focused, or industry focused. And not a lot of them really put the human at the center. And I think that's really where we have a huge impact is that we really think about convenience for the user. We really think about how does change really happen on a farm. So that's sort of been, you know, some of the most interesting insights of the past two years. And thinking about the future, so, you know, one of the value propositions we have for farmers is access to financing, because transitioning to regenerative agriculture is expensive. And, of course, if you're financing that transition, the funds have to come from somewhere. And so we started having some really great and, you know, very, very effective collaborations with some food corporates on the side who are looking to make their supply chains more regenerative. And we believe that there's really so much power in connecting the agricultural side and the farmers and the b2b, the sort of food corporate side, because their interest is similar. They both want to be resilient for the future. They both want their part of the supply chain to be more climate friendly. They both need healthy soils in order to do business. So we noticed that actually, the interests are very aligned. And food corporates are increasingly seeing the value also of regenerative agriculture, in terms of the climate impact, but also in terms of the overall performance and resilience and quality of food, and so on. So really bridging that gap is our focus area now and really thinking about, so how do we enable farmers to do the transition on the ground but then equally, how do we enable food companies to make the transition and have the access to the agricultural side of their supply chain that they need in order to drive that change.
Justine Reichman And what is the larger challenge for you?
Nina Mannheimer We always get that question from investors and other people, and everyone has a different opinion. So even internally, lots of people have different opinions. Personally, I think the agricultural side is harder than the corporate side, simply because it's more scattered. You know, there's so many different types of farmers. I also think that, you know, behavior change takes a really long time. I think there's so much at stake for them. There's so much, you know, there's so much happening on a farm already, that I think, you know, creating a big change is hard, but it's you know, it's a challenge that we love in the product team and that's, you know, our platform is really focused on that. And I'm, of course, I'm very optimistic around it. But I do think that it is a big challenge to solve.
Justine Reichman Awesome. So, you know, what can we expect from Klim going forward in the next, you know, year for the farmers and for others to look forward to. How could they implement this in the short term to make changes? And in the long run, right now, like what would be a short term thing that they could gain by including this as a companion for themselves?
Nina Mannheimer You mean, in terms of effects on the farm?
Justine Reichman Yeah.
“Once you start seeing some small positive results, you start getting more confident and then it snowballs into this bigger thing." —Nina Mannheimer
Nina Mannheimer So yeah, I mean, I think it's super interesting to compare the shorter term and the longer term things. So one thing that we talk about a lot is, you know, farmers essentially, are entrepreneurs. A lot of them run their own business. And so, for us, it's important that they also see adopting regenerative measures in a sense, it's a way of investing in their own business, right? You might not have short term rewards in all cases, or immediately, or, you know, sometimes in the short term, it doesn't look that interesting. But actually, once you look at a few years down the line, it starts to become really interesting. That being said, we do see that most of our farmers are also happy with short term results. So they, you know, even in the scope of the year, even if you're implementing just a few of the simpler measures, like catch crops, cover crops, planting hedges, and that kind of thing, we are seeing that farmers are seeing their soil getting healthier, getting a little bit more resilient. So, you know, we're already seeing certain extreme weather events all around the globe, of course, and Germany is not an exception and our farmers are reporting to us that their soils are a little bit more resilient, especially to periods of drought or intense rain. So that's really great. And I think the, you know, we see it a little bit of a snowball. So at the beginning you might be skeptical as a farmer and then once you start seeing some small positive results, you start getting more confident and then it kind of snowballs into this bigger thing where by seeing the positive results, you're going to do more
Justine Reichman Wonderful. Well, I'm so glad that I got to connect with you, learn about Klim and see what's on the horizon for the future. So if folks wanted to follow up and learn more about Klim, what's the easiest way for them to go about doing that?
Nina Mannheimer Yeah. So the easiest way is probably to follow us on LinkedIn or check out our website. We also do a monthly newsletter on LinkedIn, which is focused on decarbonizing the food industry and looks more at the at the b2b side, which is also really, really exciting, or you can also follow our Instagram channels. Although our farmer channel is in German only at the moment, but soon to be international.
Justine Reichman Awesome. Thanks so much for joining me.
Nina Mannheimer Thank you so much.
