#96 - Expo West Recap: Regen Wins, Emerging Trends, & Essential Insights

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ReGen Brands Recap #96 - Expo West Recap: Regen Wins, Emerging Trends, & Essential Insights - (RECAP LINK)

Episode Transcript:

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated with AI and is not 100% accurate.

Kyle Krull - 00:00:13
Welcome to the ReGen Brands Podcast. This is a place for brands, retailers, investors, and other food system stakeholders to learn about the consumer brands supporting regenerative agriculture and how they're changing the world. This is your host, Kyle, joined by my cohost, AC, who's gonna take us into the

Anthony Corsaro - 00:00:33
episode. On this episode, Kyle and I are flying solo to bring you some updates and thoughts coming out of natural products expo west twenty twenty five. What are the latest industry trends we're tracking? What was the state of regenerative at this year's Super Bowl of CPG? What were the biggest regen wins from the pitch slam to nexties to fundraising announcements? We dive into all the most important regen CPG topics, including certification presence, new product highlights, and new information on increasing consumer awareness and demand for Rejerna products. We break down the activation of the I Heart Regen campaign and celebrate the success in building community, plus we offer some key insights and stats you can't get anywhere else. Whether you are at the show or not, drop us a note with your major takeaways or other topics you'd like to see us discuss. Let's dive in.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:01:17
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the ReGen Brands Podcast. Kyle and I are coming to you today with the classic expo west recap. And there's quite a lot to discuss here, partner.

Kyle Krull - 00:01:42
There is. Yeah. You know, we had a killer week last week. It's great to see everybody in person and connect in. And for me, my the thing I'm most proud of of this expo is not getting sick, quite honestly. I feel like maybe a tiny bit nasally, but aside from that, like, no sickness. And I hope I really hope that's the case for the majority of the people who came. So that's that's huge.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:02:05
Hey. What's the shot clock on that? Because there's only Tuesday. So, like, you know, if it gets to tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, and you get sick, you know, did you still get out of expo unscathed is the question.

Kyle Krull - 00:02:15
That's a good question. You know, I mean, last year, I was, like, I was feeling it Thursday night. So, like, before I even flew home. So the fact that I flew I flew on Friday and we're now at Tuesday makes me feel like I'm pretty good. But, you know, knock on wood, you you never know these days. So, yeah, that's a good question, and I don't know the answer. We need somebody with a more scientific background in trans transmissible sickness.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:02:39
There there's no better way to guard your immunity than to over index on regenerative samples at expo. So, you know, I think I think we're in a good spot.

Kyle Krull - 00:02:47
True. Very true. Cool, man.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:02:50
Well, let's start, like, high level. You know,

Kyle Krull - 00:02:53
give us a give us the data. You know, what what happened at the show?

Anthony Corsaro - 00:02:57
Yeah. So we want to try and do an even better job tracking this, but got a lot of positive feedback on what we kinda provided before the show in terms of some metrics and also the booth guide. Our final count of brands supporting regenerative agriculture that we're exhibiting was 65. There's probably five or 10 more that we need to add that I missed before the show, but but saw at the show. So 70 plus exhibitors supporting Regen Ag, which we define as, you know, they have some sort of regenerative claim on at least one product or they're broadly doing some sort of verifiable and documentable kind of work in their supply chain and talking about that to consumers at a broader marketing level. So long story short, you know, that's something that we feel like we wanna continue to track to see kind of what is the growth in in in that. I think that's important As that relates to, like, broader, the broader industry and the broader event, I think that's also a good metric to track.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:03:46
So there was 3,200 around 3,200 exhibitors. Nine hundred were first time exhibitors. There's a ton of non brand exhibitors. So I actually need to probably reach out to the New Hope team and try and figure out just how many of those 3,200 were brands because that's really what we wanna track is, like, how many brands are supporting regen ag and how many brands are exhibiting. But that's still, you know, 70 divided by 3,200, just basic math. That's more than 2% of all exhibitors supporting regen ag. I bet it's actually higher than that.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:04:14
And like like I said, that's not indicative of just brands. But but I do believe that's an increase over historical numbers. We'll start tracking that year over year and and actually have kind of that data for everybody. But, I I just felt at a high level, like, regen was very present and and seen at the show. I mean, how did you feel about that, from a qualitative perspective in in relation to previous shows?

Kyle Krull - 00:04:48
I mean, I'm definitely biased. Right? I spent the majority of my time at regen booths looking for regen food, looking for ReGen Brands. That being said, it didn't seem as hard to do that as it has in previous years. You know what I mean? It was there it seemed like there were more frequent regen booths, which I call, like, safe spaces at Expo West. You can go and have a safe space at a regen booth. So, yeah, you know, again, like, obviously, we're biased and and we work in this I don't wanna call it the regenerative silo, but, you know, we're very focused on this work. So I think we noticed it a little bit more. But, yeah, it did seem present.

Kyle Krull - 00:05:18
And and more importantly, I think the conversations I have with the retailers, like, their interest in regenerative, in particular, ROC, which we'll get to later, seems to be higher than ever. So, the trend does feel real. I think that this expo was a a show of strength and a positive data point for the regenerative movement, and that's, really cool to see.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:05:43
Well, I mean, since you just mentioned that we can go there, which is, like, one of, I think, our big collective takeaways is ROC, regenerative organic certified is, like, kicking ass. It is very apparent to me and I think both of us that, like, they are the clear leader right now. They were super present across many of their member brands, if not all their member brands. I saw their logo in MLM on various different ingredient suppliers and other players in the space. Now granted, I'm walking those areas pretty fast, but I thought it was I I saw it a lot, and it was a large part of, I think, what those people were trying to feature. So, yeah, rock is crushing. I think their brands are doing a really nice job with PR around the event as well and kind of touting it and getting SKUs, you know, confirmed and rolled out.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:06:21
So, just tip tip of the cap. Like, they're they're crushing it right now.

Kyle Krull - 00:06:36
I totally agree. You know, I think, as people who look for regenerative anything, it was really easy to find rock. Mhmm. And outside of Climate Day, I wanna give, you know, Christine Ryu and Regenerified in particular a shout out for some of their presentations and panel participation. But outside of that, it was difficult to to really, like, find and notice a any level of continuity for any of the other major certifications. And we're not sharing this information to try to bash anyone or lift any other one up. We wanna give Roc the kudos they deserve for the fantastic work they're doing and just highlight a potential opportunity for the other certifications out there to maybe make a little bit more of a splash or presence with some of their member brands.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:07:17
Yeah. It's our job to support all of them, but also objectively report on what we see in the marketplace and, you know, to kinda round out and and agree. I thought Christine absolutely killed her her part of her panel where she was presenting that data from that consumer research show. I I'm super bullish on regenerified. You know? I'm I'm I'm I'm all in on regenerified long term. I think that they're gonna do great things and and have a bunch of brands and and be more kind of recognizable and present. A greener world came into the event with some big news certifying California olive branch, which I think was, like, 4,000 plus acres.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:07:45
I think that's that's a big get for them, and that's a big news for them. Land and market is is, I know, going through some person personnel, transition. So I'm interested to see kind of where they go and what happens with them. They have seemed to somewhat regress a little bit over the past few years, which, you know, I I shared with a couple of people at the show was extremely disappointing to me because I almost I don't wanna pick favorites, but I like how focused they are on outcomes. And I almost would say they really are the best methodology in in, like, verifying the outcomes of regeneration on land. And I also saw I always saw them as the standard bearer and kind of, I'm the the exact term I want is escaping me, but for for the animal piece, for the animal integration piece and really Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:08:28
Like, the livestock systems. And I think we need to continue to to feature that and focus on that. So, yeah, just interesting time in the in the cert landscape.

Kyle Krull - 00:08:51
I agree with everything you said and to, you know, to Roc's credit. And I don't know if this is, you know, like, a market share grab on their part, but it seems like I've seen more Roc certified meat than ever before. And to your point with with land to market and their EOB program maybe making less of a splash, I don't know if what exactly is happening behind the scenes there, but, again, we're just preserving what we see at the show. So worth calling out.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:09:16
Mhmm. Yeah. And I don't know how much of that rock meat boom is really just from that Australian the one big Australian company, Hewitt, that I believe. I I know Applegate is sourcing all their rock meat from Australia, and my guess is it's from them. We know Charcutt Nouveau is is sourcing from them because Eric told us on the podcast. So my assumption is that is what's really the big the big domino there.

Kyle Krull - 00:09:43
I say that that plus, I mean, StarWalker is the only other one I know firsthand based in California with rock beef and rock pork as we learned on the podcast. Yeah. But outside of those two, yeah, maybe I'm not sure.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:09:56
Yeah. But regardless, I mean, overall, I think regen was much more present and recognizable. Rock is is clearly kind of kicking ass, and the other certs have some other recent wins. I think that that can be celebrated and, are noteworthy as well. So anything else to add on kind of the the cert roundup?

Kyle Krull - 00:10:18
No. Maybe we'll dive into it a little bit later, but wanna dive a little bit deeper into some of the the information learned from Christine's presentation. I thought there were some really pressing points there that we should discuss, but we can get there later.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:10:31
Yeah. Well, let's let's chat some other regen wins. We have a big list here, so we'll we'll kinda just peel them off and and maybe add some some commentary to each one. Super excited. Number one, that recoup, won the pitch slam. Susan absolutely crushed it. She gave a shout out to the ReGen Brands Coalition in her deck and verbally, which just

Kyle Krull - 00:10:51
Hell, yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:10:52
Made made my heart flutter as I witnessed her just dominate her pitch. So that was really, really cool. And also, Wild Orchard, Michael from Wild Orchard came in second. So just amazing to see two Regina brands taking the top spots, two rock brands taking the top two spots, and we've now had ReGen Brands coming first and second the last two years of the pitch slam, which I think is a real testament to the strength of those four brands and also the strength of kind of this movement and the momentum that we have and how it's resonating with people, hopefully, also outside the bubble. I mean, the those folks are still in the natural products bubble, but they're not maybe necessarily directly in the region bubble like we are. So, congrats to to Susan Siwa and Regoop, and congrats to Michael and and the team at Wild Orchard. Just Just huge ups and and amazing work.

Kyle Krull - 00:11:39
Totally agree. And, you know, I don't know if it's, like, the biggest deal. Like, I don't think that any brand is looking at the NextE or or Pitch Slam or NextE Awards. And, like, okay. I wanna make sure I innovate to win one of these awards next year. I don't think that's the case. But I do think brands who are looking at, okay, what's up and coming, what are the trends that people are noticing, I think it's good validation for regenerative products in general. So any win that we can secure is good for the entire movement.

Kyle Krull - 00:12:00
So, yeah, kudos to Susan, kudos to Michael, And we're stoked to have regenerative products, you know, spotlighted in, in its capacity.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:12:12
Mhmm. Yeah. Two one thing from each of their pitches that really stood out to me was, Recoup's already their ability to be at a competitive SRP on shelf, I think, is gonna be really key to their growth and is a huge kind of competitive advantage that I don't know how many other Rejorative brands at their scale and size can really tout. So that really stood out to me. And then, you know, Michael having bootstrapped Wild Orchard to where they are all the way without taking any external capital and just now kind of raising for the first time was super impressive. And that that dude is just a hustler. I forget

Kyle Krull - 00:12:47
He is, dude. He's the man.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:12:48
Yeah. I I think he said on stage how many demos he's done in person in the q and a, and I think he did, like, 40 or 50 plus demos himself, you know, last year. And so just great great vibes. Great vibes, guy. First team all vibes, Michael. He he's a madman. Wayne, I can't imagine, like, somebody who doesn't even drink caffeine.

Kyle Krull - 00:13:08
If I'm, like, in in a store and, like, Michael Ham is demoing to me, it's like, I'm buying this product regardless. You know what I mean? Like, he's that that level of good. So Yeah. I I don't wanna say it's, like, the best place for him to be spending time, but he probably has one of the highest conversions rates of any demo rep on that product. No doubt.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:13:23
Yeah. He said it's it's been really great for their Whole Foods business, because they are significantly more expensive than a lot of the other options, right, at the store. But as soon as he gets in front of people, he gets people to taste it. He gives them the story. He said it's really moving the needle. So it's good good to hear and see. Go ahead. Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:13:37
I mean, I was just gonna say, well, next up on the

Kyle Krull - 00:13:44
list, you know, huge huge news from Good Sam. Closing a $9,000,000 series a, so kudos to Heather and the whole team over there at Good Sam. That's a big deal. And in my recollection, that's the largest series a I've seen from any regenerative brand. Curious to get your take as you are the investment goo of the two of us.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:14:05
I was gonna say guy, and I

Kyle Krull - 00:14:06
was gonna say guru, and I just got stuck in goo.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:14:10
I could be a goo. That sounds kinda cool.

Kyle Krull - 00:14:12
I take it.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:14:15
Yeah. Huge huge win for the Good Sam team. Just major tip of the cap, major round of applause for them. I'm so happy for Heather and and that whole crew. Just a just a team of pros. Like, they just they just go about their business in such a legitimate way. I really appreciate that about them. And, you know, they weave a lot of regenerative business ideals and also activism in that, but never in a way that seems to me off putting or charitable is not the right word. I don't know. I hope hope people understand what I'm trying to say. Like, they're just they're pros.

Kyle Krull - 00:14:50
They're their pros and they're authentic within with their mission in, like, every single capacity. So may maybe that's a better way to get to what you're trying to say.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:14:58
Yeah. And I think it's one, it's a huge win for Regeneron brands. I cannot think of off the top of my head without, you know, scouring through the data as well, a bigger series a for ReGen Brands. It's a huge one it's a huge win for a female founded and led company because they still do receive such little amount of venture capital, just internationally. I think that that that's a lot better in the in the natural foods and CBG space, but it's still an issue. And then third, which Heather alluded to this in a LinkedIn post that she kinda put out announcing the raise. All the money mostly is from LatAm. It's from VCs in Latin America where Good Sam's doing a lot of really cool work sourcing.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:15:33
And so that's an amazing win, I think, that they had the ingenuity and the creativity to go to those sources of capital to get this funded, but it's also extremely disappointing that, like, we couldn't find domestic investors to to believe in this mission and support them in a similar way. I think Desert Bloom wasn't on the round, so they they are an American investor. So it wasn't completely void of, American participation, but it was definitely led by these groups in LatAm, which, once again, I think there's, like, two truths there. Great that Good Sam solved that solved this cash flow problem, this this financing problem with people that are really convicted and really understand what they're doing on the ground with these farmers. And, also, like, how do we get more American investors to to care more and and really understand the impact and financial viability of of these models that are being built with smallholder farmers in the global South, but then coming to the American marketplace to realize, like, full margin on on these items. I think it's a really good point.

Kyle Krull - 00:16:35
And I don't mean to play devil's advocate, but part of me wonders if Good Samaritan's model was primarily sourcing from North American farms, like, whether or not Right. Like, those investors would be more interested in investing. Right? Mhmm. So just just a theory. And, again, not trying to diminish the work or the fact that it's still disappointing in any capacity, but just wanna call that out. You know, in my mind, it may it to a degree, makes sense that Latin American funders are looking to support this type of business because a lot of that money is gonna end up going back into those economies.

Kyle Krull - 00:16:53
So

Anthony Corsaro - 00:17:05
Yeah. And I think it's a %. And I think it's important to know, which Heather did as well in the post. Like, they're selling a bunch of stuff that can't be grown in The United States. So

Kyle Krull - 00:17:14
Super fair point.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:17:15
It's like, Americans are still gonna want this. Americans are still gonna wanna eat it. We still want it to be grown regeneratively for the planet, and we wanna support those communities that are really growing it. And so to me, it's a win win win win win, all the all the wins, at a time especially when the rhetoric is kind of anti globalized trade and tariffs are coming and, you know, a lot of kind of nationalistic ideals, which I don't think is always the wrong answer for everything. But for these commodities, it's like, we cannot grow them here. We need to buy them from other places. We need to support those other places correctly. We need to build, regenerate supply chains from them with them. So, yeah, just huge win for those folks and and big ups to the Good Sam team.

Kyle Krull - 00:17:58
Yeah. Super fair point on the tariff piece. You know, it's like, we can't grow bananas in The United States.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:18:03
Yeah.

Kyle Krull - 00:18:03
You know? So, like, if you like bananas, you're paying a premium regardless. And that strategy of blanket tariffs just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense in those in those specific, commodity crops. Mhmm.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:18:15
Yep. %.

Kyle Krull - 00:18:17
Well, let's

Anthony Corsaro - 00:18:17
get to next season, man.

Kyle Krull - 00:18:18
I was reviewing the outline you put together prior to us starting this, this podcast episode, and And there's stuff on here I didn't even know was was real what was happening. So great job pulling this list together, but walk us through some of what you found at, at expo.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:18:34
So some disclaimers upfront would be, next, these are really hard to track from a regen perspective because a lot of these items are new, and they haven't hit the marketplace yet. So we have not seen them in retail, and many of them don't even have a web page on the brand's website. So, like, we don't know for sure if they have a regenerative claim or not. Maybe it's on the front of pack. Maybe it's on the back of pack. Maybe it's not on there at all. There's two there's two key things that we're trying to track.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:18:55
One is, like, how many brands supporting regen ag are are finalists and NextE winners, and we already defined what supporting regen ag means. And then how many products actually have a regenerative claim that are finalists and winners. So according to according to my math that I can do with the information that I currently have, we had 11 brands supporting Regen Ag that were actual next year winners, and then five of the products had regenerative claims. So and once again, some of these, we haven't talked to the people. We don't know much about their supply chains. We haven't fully vetted them.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:19:25
We're just going off of what's on the packaging or what we can find, you know, online. But I'll just run down the full list, and then we can kinda peel off something to maybe chat about. So Groundwork Coffee, their organic cold brew coconut latte was the next winner in the coffee and tea category. From what I can see, they do not have, a regenerative claim on it, but they obviously sell a lot of rock coffee. So that one was kind of, brand supporting, but maybe not product with a regen claim. I'm

Kyle Krull - 00:20:00
just shout out shout out to Groundwork because they were early to regen in the category. Yeah. So just wanna give them props for that. You know? Not not to say that anybody who's new to regen is like a me too because I don't think that's the case. We want to see more new brands in there, but also wanna give credit to the OG. So, you know, shout out to the OG.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:20:16
Mhmm. Absolutely.

Kyle Krull - 00:20:18
This

Anthony Corsaro - 00:20:18
is a brand we haven't talked to yet, but they have the word regenerative on the front of the pint. So ice cream for bears, their honey honey won the frozen dessert category. So that is a product with a regen claim. Once again, I I don't think either one of us know anything about their supply chain. I got some business cards at their booth, so we will follow-up and either have them on the podcast or discuss with them. But that was a winner with a with the word regenerative on the front of the pipe.

Kyle Krull - 00:20:41
I did not even know this brand existed until this podcast. So I'm super bummed I missed them at the show. I just pulled up their website, and their branding is amazing. You know, I mean, their picture is like a photoshopped grizzly bear eating a salmon that's, like, flying up the river, but the salmon has been replaced by a pint of ice cream. So I, like, I love this brand so much. I wanna learn more about their supply chain and their story. But it sounds cool. Sweet and only with honey, grass fed regenerative. Like, it's it ticks the boxes for me as a consumer, and, yeah, definitely wanna learn more.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:21:13
Yeah. The third one was Diesel Family Ranch. Their primal blend ground turkey won the next day in the meat, dairy, or animal based product category. Don't believe this is their regenerified turkey. I could not see that on on pack or anything, but, obviously, they're supporting Regen in a big way. We've had Heidi on the podcast, so congrats to to. I think we're gonna continue to see that, that primal blend just go gangbusters across all these different, categories of of meat.

Kyle Krull - 00:21:43
No doubt. And and regen or not, to your point, it's still fantastic to see these organs not being wasted or used as animal feed and to get back into the human diet. You know, obviously, we're big fans of regenerative agriculture, but a core piece of that is human nutrition. This product ticks the human nutrition box. We don't know for sure whether it does or not for, the regen box, but I'm stoked to see this type of innovation.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:22:04
Amen. The next one was Romiano Cheese Company. Their pepper jack queso won the Nexi for certified organic product. Romiano is an interesting regen case study. I still have not figured out exactly kinda what the regen story is. I've had a couple very, very brief conversations with people on their team. I know that they are sourcing all organic, and I believe regenerative or some regenerative dairy for pretty much all their products. But I don't think they have any or or a lot of products that have a regen claim. So that's another one that's kind of like, hey. We know they're doing something.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:22:34
We're just not exactly sure what that is quite yet, but that would be in the whole, like, brand supporting region ad category more so than certified product.

Kyle Krull - 00:22:44
Totally agree. Not too much for me to comment on this one, but I think it's one of those, like, quote, sneaky regen brands where maybe their full supply chain isn't identity preserved, so they can't make front of pack claims. But based on the information that we have, it it seems like they're supporting in some capacity. So take that with what you will.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:23:00
The next one is Kodiak Cakes. They're Kernza Cakes flatjack and waffle waffle mix, if I can talk. One the next for pantry staples, which we've obviously talked about Kernza a lot on this podcast. If you listen to the show, you know kinda what Kernza is. It's a perennial grain that has huge potential, if we can kind of swap it out, I think, for a lot of the other varieties that we currently use in the commodity grain world. So, this this this to me is also kind of like a a little bit gray, but I would I would say it has a regenerative claim since it's branded all around Kernza. And Kernza is pretty much only grown in regenerative systems and and it's kind of by itself regenerative, I guess, in a way. But that was that was great to see. And I I haven't had I haven't had the product yet, but I I wanna try it. I agree.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:23:39
I'd love to try it.

Kyle Krull - 00:23:47
And what's interesting about this list is it's starting to feel like that category is getting a little bit, like, regen crowded. You know? There's another whenever we get to towards the end, but we got long table in there as well. So I think heirloom grains, regenerative grains is really a trend that's starting to surface, which is really interesting to see. Let's just throw it out there, man. Like, Zac Efron's involved in Kodiak Cakes in some capacity. Like, that that's a dude who I I well, I can't remember the name of the show. Down to Earth.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:24:14
Yes.

Kyle Krull - 00:24:15
He's got a series where he kinda cruises around the world, and he has done some stuff for Regen. So good on him for utilizing his celebrity to kind of raise awareness around regenerative products, and I'm stoked to see Kodiak innovating in that direction.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:24:28
Yep. Amen. Agreed. And we need brands off taking Kernza. Like, we are over supplied and under demanded from what I hear from the Kernza people, not to, like, a tragic degree, but, like, we need we need more off takers for Kernza. So I hope this queue does amazingly well. I hope they can do more. I hope other brands, you know, innovate, implement Kernza into into their supply chains. Next winner was Belvis Belgian Chocolates. Their Armayari being pure origin dark chocolate won the next fee for people forward product. I heard that this brand had a booth.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:24:50
I never saw them. I must have missed them if they did. But shout out to Cortland from y Regenerative and the Regenerative NYC event. He did talk to, I believe, the gentleman that's that's leading this. And I think according to our secondary sources, which is Cortland, the product is certified organic and regenerified. And I also from the picture in the next articles, it does say regenerative on the front of pack.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:25:19
So that's another brand we wanna learn more about, and and just hear kind of what the story is. But I believe it's, cacao sourced from Africa, and then it's a chocolate brand out of out of, Belgium. So that's all I know at the moment.

Kyle Krull - 00:25:39
You know, as a two two dudes who love chocolate, couple of regions who love chocolate, it's always great to see more chocolate in the category. I just pulled up their website, and it looks like they're into biodynamic endemeter farming, endemeter certification, which is huge in Europe and Australia and New Zealand. And it's super legit. It's a it's a very legitimate certification. So I would guess that their claims of regenerative are authentic. And if they're searching for or or they decided to utilize a regenified certification for The United States market, like, good on them. Unfortunately, for some reason, we as a country, those in The United States who are listening, we don't really recognize Demeter or Biodynamic.

Kyle Krull - 00:26:12
I'm not exactly sure why that's the case. So it's a bummer that they have to go with a different certification, but, you know, it is what it is. But based on my thirty seconds of research, this feels legit regen.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:26:34
And we we heard from some inside sources that Demeter slash biodynamic might be getting a little bit more, recognition in the regenerative space over here in The US based on some efforts going on. So I'll just I'll leave that as a little teaser that we could potentially have some more news on soon. But, yeah, you summed that up well, brother. Thank you. This is a brand I'm really excited about having on the podcast. I think it's a super interesting innovation. I had not tried the products, but I saw a press release come out about them a few months ago that we include included in the newsletter.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:26:58
Stoked Oats is the name of the brand, and their Herbie Garlic Oat Rice won the Nextiva certified regenerative product, which, you know, that was a that was a tough that was a tough group. It was it was five certified regenerative, yeah, certified regenerative products. I talked to briefly Chanel and Simon who are the husband and wife kinda co founding team at Stoked Oats. And I had one of the skews. I don't know what flavor it was, but it was very good. I had a just a quick little spoonful, and super interesting take on kind of, like, oatmeal, but more delivered like a rice.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:27:31
To me, it was like, is rice pilaf where you cook it and kind of the rice, like, swells and is kind of, like, thick? Is that what that is?

Kyle Krull - 00:27:48
I mean, I think that kinda describes all rice and makes me question how

Anthony Corsaro - 00:27:51
much time you spend in the kitchen. I'm not a rice expert, unfortunately, but congrats to them. I tried one of the the products. We're we're gonna get them on the show, and, I thought the product was was really good, the one that I had.

Kyle Krull - 00:28:06
I'm super bummed I did not get to try this.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:28:08
And I This is right up your alley.

Kyle Krull - 00:28:10
It is so up my alley, man. I cook grains all the time. As somebody who gets a bunch of bone broth at his house all the time, like, I I cook a lot of grains in bone broth. And based on my just look at the product, to me, it looks like an unrolled oat. Like, a rolled oat is flattened, and that's typically what is traditionally used in oat bales and things like that. This looks like an unrolled oat, so very similar to the shape of a grain of rice. And I'll I mean, the name, Stoked Oats, is it this is so up my alley. And their branding is like an old school tractor with, like, a flame coming out of the top. So I dig what they're doing.

Kyle Krull - 00:28:35
And even, like, they're they're they're focused on nutrient density. You know, nutrient dense superfoods to make you stoked. Like, the messaging seems to be in line with our theory of what we need to pair with regenerative agriculture to get market conversion. So I'm excited a little more about this brand and and looking forward to the podcast episode with them.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:28:59
Yeah. And they had a booth, so they obviously are trying to, I would assume, get more distribution in the American market. They are out of Canada, so I have no idea if they're, like, established in Canada, if they're kind of, like, a newer emerging brand. But we're we're excited to learn more. The next Nexi winner was El Nacho for their MS mango white corn tortilla chips. I'm actually not sure if it's like m's mango or how how to say the name properly. I talked to Joe, the founder of this brand, a little bit on LinkedIn. He seems like a really good dude.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:29:25
They are sourcing, certified regenerative corn from a greener world for these corn tortilla chips, so similar to Zach's Mighty. The whole brand is, like, about lucha luchadors or what's what's well, how do you say the, Mexican wrestling kind of motif?

Kyle Krull - 00:29:46
I think I think luchadors is correct. I'm not an expert in that in any capacity, but, yeah, I think that's right.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:29:53
My my brain immediately just starts thinking of, what's the movie? How how do I how can I

Kyle Krull - 00:29:58
Nacho Libre?

Anthony Corsaro - 00:29:59
Yeah. My my brain automatically just starts thinking of Nacho Libre quotes, and I can't actually think of anything else. But it was great to see them get that recognition. I I did not have a chance to try the chips at the show, but, Joe and the the team did have a booth, and we're definitely excited to have him on as well at some point.

Kyle Krull - 00:30:15
I've gotta go totally off topic right now because at at the show, we've been we've been talking about a roast between, you know, like, our our our quote isms, like, our habits. And I've already noticed today, like, I've used the word capacity. I'm not even sure how many times. So I'm preemptively calling myself out on that one. I also think I said the exact phrase innovate in that direction at least twice. So I'm gonna try to have a more biodiverse vernacular for this show. But circling back to El Nacho, yeah, their branding is fire.

Kyle Krull - 00:30:44
It is it's literally a Luchador jumping off the ropes of a wrestling match or a wrestling clearly, I'm not very into wrestling. I don't know, ring, if you will. But it looks fantastic. And I love they're not it's, again, it's sort of like a sneaky regen. They're not it's it's certainly not the when you think of regenerative brand, this is not what comes to mind for me, and they're truly trying to sell tortilla chips that are regenerative, which is really cool.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:31:15
Yeah. So the the actual SKU, the correct name is miss Mango because they're all like a Luchador character. All the SKUs are Luchador characters. So she's the queen, miss Mango, hot honey mango and lime. Now I'm hungry and just wanna eat 17 bags of tortilla chips. So thank you, Joe and team, for for that for that gift. But, yeah, excited to learn more about them and get them on the show for sure.

Kyle Krull - 00:31:38
Yeah. I'm gonna buy a variety pack right now. This looks awesome. Hell yeah. Pineapple barbecue, man?

Anthony Corsaro - 00:31:43
Count me in. And, also, shout out to Zach's Mighty, switching avocado oil. They posted something on their Instagram that someone sent me the other day. So love to see them making that switch. Shout out to Zach and the team. I love that they're switching out to seed oils and then to avocado oil as well.

Kyle Krull - 00:31:58
Hell, yeah. Still the number one performing chip in guacamole per Zach's Unreal. Mission. Yeah. Good on them.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:32:05
Alright. Last three here. This one's probably a quick one because I do not believe it has any sort of regenerative supply story, but Guy Herb's OG, big supporter of Regen, has a rock certified farm, been on the show. Their metabolic activator skew was the winner in the supplement trailblazer category, so just good to see them continue to lead and and get the recognition that they deserve.

Kyle Krull - 00:32:24
You know, it wouldn't be a RegenBrains episode if I didn't have a book rec. I'm in the middle of reading I'm in the middle of reading a book called Brain Energy, which talks about metabolic disease and the link with mental health across the country, which is I mean, across the world, really. It's wild to read. I've learned a ton. And in particular, the importance of metabolism and mitochondria in particular. I don't know much about this skew, but the fact that there's any innovation focusing on metabolic health, I think, is incredible. And Gaia in general has done so much on their end to support regen.

Kyle Krull - 00:32:53
So, again, we don't know if this skew is specifically regen championing or not, but it's a really cool piece of innovation to see.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:33:04
Amen. The next one is an interesting one. I wasn't super familiar with this brand, but Jovial Foods, their Einkorn pancake and waffle mix won the editor's choice NextE. There there were two actually recognized from the editor's choice category, which I believe is just the NextE judges picking out ones that maybe didn't win in their category, but deserve some sort of recognition. But I don't know. You might know more about them as kind of, like, being in the field a little bit more than myself for a longer period of time, but they're the Einkorn OGs. The skew is rock, which which you love to see. But, yeah, what are your thoughts on this one?

Kyle Krull - 00:33:40
So we in this house are huge fans of Jovial. My wife buys the einkorn flour, whole wheat. Like, we we go hard on Jovial, and they're sort of a sleeper, man. I remember, like, ten years ago, competing against this brand with some other products that I represent. I'm like, what is this sleeper brand Jovial? Like, how are they still here? And the more I've learned about this brand, the more I've come to love them and champion them. And I I'm excited to see their expansion into more categories and really bring Einkorn into the fold.

Kyle Krull - 00:34:05
And for those who don't know, Einkorn is like the OG wheat, non hybridized wheat. So it it it's almost inherently regenerative in some capacities. Damn it. I said capacity again. In some instances, I'm gonna call myself out. But, yeah, I'm excited to learn more about this brand.

Kyle Krull - 00:34:21
Would love to get them on the pod and do a deep dive into Einquan because I think it's fascinating. So yeah. And and again, this is the other one where that's now three different regenerative brands that we know of making some kind of a regenerative claim in that kind of, like, breakfast bake aisle, if you will. So Mhmm. Exciting. You know, I'm excited to try this.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:34:52
Yeah. Hell, yeah. The last one, which is also an Editor's Choice winner, which was a new brand that I believe is, like, very new that I wasn't familiar with before they were featured in the next stuff, Folkland Foods. Folkland is one word. They're Himalayan pink salt farm fries. I don't believe there's a return of claim on the front of pack, and that's all I can find pictures of because there's nothing on their website yet. It seems like a very new brand with new skews, but they talk about, being regenerative organic farmers a lot on the website. It it looks like this is all vertically integrated and sourced from a potato farm in Pennsylvania, from what I can gather.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:35:22
So that one is definitely like a supporting regen ag. But when we see the rest of the package, it could turn into a product with regenerative claim as well. But seems like a super cool brand story, another brand I think we're looking forward to having on once we make the right connection with somebody. And it was good to see them get recognized as well.

Kyle Krull - 00:35:45
Yeah. You know, this is another one of those brands I had no information about. I had to do in this podcast. I'm pulling up their website, and it looks authentic to me. I mean, there's like a picture of ducks on the ground. There's a picture of people standing next to a tractor like it just broke down. Like, it feels like they're really trying to share their story. I also love that the oil used is olive oil, and this is another one of those opportunities where ReGen Brands can lean into existing trends like seed oil free, and that can help to capture market share. And in particular, like, people who are interested in avoiding seed oils, generally speaking, wanna get the cleanest ingredients, right, and do what's best for their health.

Kyle Krull - 00:36:10
So another opportunity to continue to pair up with these claims that are moving the whole movement in the right direction. So excited to see this one pop up. Mhmm.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:36:26
So that's that's like NextEase recap. Let us know, how y'all feel about some of the data that we're trying to provide there and some of the commentary. I got some really good feedback at the show that it is valuable. But if you disagree or if you have other things that you'd like to see us track or talk more about, we're definitely all ears. Let's let's pop over to new products. Like, what I feel like I never have enough time on the floor to see everyone I wanna see, to talk as much as I wanna talk to, to everyone, and to try as much stuff as I really want to. And, obviously, you and I are very focused on, like, just going to the ReGen Brands or the the brand supporting regen ag booths. But what products stood out to you that you tried at the show?

Kyle Krull - 00:37:06
I mean, like you, I did not get enough time to spend cruising the show, unfortunately. That being said, on the list that we have, I was able to try three of them. And the first one, I know we're both huge fans of Alex Ice Cream, but their Culture Cup to me is such a slam dunk piece of innovation. I could not be more excited for that SKU. I can't crush a full pint of ice cream and feel okay the next day. AC still can. But Alex Culture Cup

Anthony Corsaro - 00:37:34
is like I have more capacity. I have more capacity for ice cream.

Kyle Krull - 00:37:37
Fair. Fair. I appreciate you using my word. Two years of my word. Yeah. So Alex culture cup is a I mean, I don't know what the ounce is on there. Do you know off the top of your head?

Anthony Corsaro - 00:37:48
I forget. Let me see if they have anything up on the website yet.

Kyle Krull - 00:37:51
It's small. I'd say it's roughly maybe a quarter of a pint, maybe even less. And so think of it as like a single serve ice cream with, like, a cookie on top, with added probiotics for that.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:38:02
Cookie is a little misleading. It's a it's a chocolate shell. So it's like a I thought

Kyle Krull - 00:38:06
some of them actually had a cookie. Are they all just chocolate shell?

Anthony Corsaro - 00:38:09
I think they are all just chocolate chill. Maybe I'm mint chocolate mint chocolate cookie was the

Kyle Krull - 00:38:16
Ah, yes. Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:38:18
Nominated for next year or finals for next year. So I believe there's a cookie in the in the ice cream base, but they all just have that same chocolate show on top, I believe.

Kyle Krull - 00:38:26
You are correct. And what I love about that skew is my favorite Ben and Jerry's flavor was mint cookies and cream, and now there's an Alex ice cream version of that in a small format with probiotics, which feels fantastic for me. Mhmm.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:38:42
Alec posted a picture of the packaging, and it looks like the skew is gonna have four cups of 3.5 fluid ounce cups, 14 fluid ounce overall. I don't know how to make sense of that. I'm not smart enough to

Kyle Krull - 00:38:57
I also cannot make sense of that.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:38:59
But they're small single single serving cups, and they were really good and just rock rock solid. So congrats to Alec and David and the whole Alex team for putting that together.

Kyle Krull - 00:39:11
Yeah. You go next. I'll share after that.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:39:15
I've already said I thought the Stoked Oats SKU that I tried was impressive. So excited to to have more of their products and and learn more. Shout out again to Michael from Wild Orchard. He was sampling some RTD matcha, sourcing regenerative organic a two milk from Alexander and doing an RTD matcha. He had one for the green matcha and one for the black matcha, and then he's using, maple sweetener from from the maple man, the legend, Michael Farrell, who's one of my favorite people in the space. And I thought it was really solid. They did, like, one production run to bring it to expo and to to have people sample it and kinda give feedback. Matcha is a really interesting thing, to, like, nail the the right latte, with the milk and also with the sweetener.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:39:55
My girlfriend, Summer, is a big fan of matcha, so I am now

Kyle Krull - 00:40:07
My wife, Heather, is a big fan of matcha, so they they need a matcha up together.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:40:11
See? Another thing to add to the list of of overlaps for for Colin, I see. But

Kyle Krull - 00:40:17
I thought

Anthony Corsaro - 00:40:17
it was really solid, and I'm excited to see him him bring that to market. And I think that's an interesting opportunity, for Wild Orchard to to go into the RTD space.

Kyle Krull - 00:40:25
Agreed. And I think Matcha is so approachable. It's really becoming a mainstay. Almost every coffee shop has a Matcha version version these days, which isn't to say it's, like, where he wants to be, but it's just a validation of, like, that's a good place to start innovating. So, stoked to see that come out.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:40:40
And you this this one that I'm gonna tee up for this guy, he was floored by. This this is probably his number one that he he was having an out of body experience when he tried when he tried this one.

Kyle Krull - 00:40:50
That's true. So, the brand is called Diaspora, and they have a chai masala. And I love a good chai latte. I very rarely have one that I I really enjoy because for the most part, they're way too sweet, and it drives me bonkers. I really like an authentic, very spicy chai that almost, like, warms you from the inside out, and it's it's quite hard to find. And that's both at the store and at coffee shops. So in in my limited experience of, like, finding was that I love, I just get really hooked on them. And this company, on their website says they support regenerative agriculture. It's part of their branding. You know, we don't know I don't think they have a certification.

Kyle Krull - 00:41:22
We need to learn a lot more about them.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:41:31
Mhmm.

Kyle Krull - 00:41:32
But they do have a regenerative claim. And when I tried it, like like AC said, I was floored. I was like, this is it's it's not just spicy. It was smooth, not too sweet. And I think I went back for at least three or four sample cups because it was that good. So I'm super excited to try this. And, actually, I'd forgotten that I took one home, which is sitting in my bag right next to me. So I'm gonna make one as soon as this podcast is over, and I'm so thrilled.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:41:57
Yeah. I had to drag this guy, on his hands and knees out of that hall so he would stop drinking drinking this chai. I also thought it was really impressive. I'm more of a sweet chai guy, and that's usually because the spicy chais are to me, I have a little too much bite or, like, a negative aftertaste, and they're they're not smooth like you said. But this was spicy chai that I could definitely drink and was super smooth. And like you said, the founder was not at the booth. We talked to a couple members of the team who are awesome, but looking forward to to getting to know the founder, better and learn more about the regenerative smaller farmers that they're sourcing all the the spices and other ingredients from.

Kyle Krull - 00:42:35
No doubt.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:42:37
What else we got on there, brother?

Kyle Krull - 00:42:39
That's it for new products. And I just gotta give a shout out to, the Big Picture Foods team, in in particular, Chris. I spent so much time like, I spent more time at the Big Picture Foods booth than anywhere else in the show just trying to eat raw, fermented, you know, probiotic, like, super delicious food that's good for my body. And he just hooked it up. Like, I'd show up, and he just, like, pushed the the samples, like, to me, like, just just eat, dude. Just eat whatever you want. So big thank you to Big Picture and to Chris for for supporting my gut health, and providing me with legitimate nutrition during the food show.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:43:14
Love that. We can always count on, Daniella and Chris for for force feeding us fermented foods, which we appreciate.

Kyle Krull - 00:43:20
So there's no force feed on my end. I'll eat everything they give me. Maybe maybe it is for you different experiences, but that, you know, my experiences, I will consume all they give me.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:43:29
Daniela is like my expo mom. Every time I walk by the booth, she's like, have some. Have some. You need some? You want some? I'm like, yeah. Give me give me, like, 17 more banana peppers, please. I'll I'll take them.

Kyle Krull - 00:43:38
It's good stuff. Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:43:42
We have some other, like, high level observations, and we also have, like, the iHeartReGen campaign that's region specific. Where where do you think we should go

Kyle Krull - 00:43:50
next? I think we should talk about the iHeartReGEN campaign. You put a lot in a lot of thought into figuring out how to execute that. I know a lot went into that, not just from you, but from JellyShot and others. So give us the recap. You know, what did you think of how that all unfolded at the show?

Anthony Corsaro - 00:44:05
Yeah. Well, I'll start with some some gratitude. You know? Obviously, JellyShot did an amazing job with the visual assets and helping us put together a plan to kinda bring it to life at the show. So a big shout out to them. Amazing work. I think it turned out really, really well. Huge shout out to all the ReGen Brands coalition members, the 19 that were exhibiting, at the show that really got behind the vision and said, hey. Like, let's do something. Go ahead and go go put together what you think that is, and we'll support it.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:44:28
And then shout out to you, shout out to Aaron, Katie, Connor, our team who really helped kinda bring it to life. And last but not least, definitely shout out to my girlfriend, Summer, for making a pretty epic jumpsuit for me, with a with a white Levi's outfit that we put little red hearts all over. It was definitely a big hit at the show. I thought it would be well received, but I was overwhelmed by literally the hundreds of comments that I got, the two days that I wore it. So that was that was really cool. But, you know, overall, I thought I saw it everywhere.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:45:02
Just just like it's confirmation bias for you and I to say that, but, like, I do try and break an objective lens to what you see. And, you know, other brands, other supporters of regen, service providers, everyone was saying, how do I get a button? How do I get a sticker? That was really cool. And, you know, I couldn't think of an analog of seeing anything that was really executed in that way across a diversity of brands like that. Maybe you can think of something in the past.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:45:33
But, you know, just just getting feedback from people that they heard people in the hallway, like, looking at a shirt or looking at a button and saying, that that is everywhere. Like, people that we do not know that we we don't know if they have any connection to region or not. Like, that's the kind of buzz we wanted to create. So I was just super super overjoyed to bring it to life and to have the support that we did, and and I think let it be a positive thing for everyone at the show.

Kyle Krull - 00:46:01
I agree. And, you know, it it sounds so simple and so easy, but it allowed for people to express their what's the word I'm looking for? Enthusiasm for the regenerative moving that wasn't necessarily tied to a specific brand or certification in a way that was it borderline unifying. You know? Like, Christine Rue, I think, was wearing it during her panel. You know? So to get, like, stage presence is really cool from a a certification, you know? So that was awesome.

Kyle Krull - 00:46:28
Also, I cannot believe you forgot to thank your new favorite homie in the entire regenerative space, Vic, who hooked us up with the regenerative organic cotton shirts that we wore on the show.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:46:40
Yeah. Vic is an absolute legend. Shout out to Gallant, international. His his his company freaking us up with some rock shirts. And Vic also gave me an amazing pump up speech at the rock event on Monday. So, Vic, I appreciate you, brother. You're you're the you're the man.

Kyle Krull - 00:46:55
Hell, yeah. Well, I thought it was awesome, man. I think, when you first mentioned the campaign to me, I was like, that kinda feels really simple. And now I see the beauty in the simplicity after seeing how it was executed and how it was adopted by so many. So just just well done. I think I think it was really awesome.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:47:12
Yeah. Thank you. And I think it has some legs, so we'll see how long we kinda roll with it and in what capacity we roll with it. You know, the QR codes and the website that it led to, I think, got left less traffic than we wanted, but I think that's less about the methodology there or how how great the web page was because I think it was good, and more about just how crazy expo is. Like, probably a little unrealistic for us to expect people to scan a QR code at all these different brand booths. And, you know, brands are trying to get buyers or whoever's at their booth to really understand just their brand and their products. And, you know, regen's gonna be maybe in the top 10 of the things that they talk about, and then tying that back to, like, specifically the iHeart Region campaign is is, I think, just lower too low on the list for us to drive, like, really hard conversion. But from a top level awareness, vibes, unity, harmony, we we nailed it, and I wanna make sure we continue to to play that role because, like, it sounds, you know, it sounds, woo woo, but, like, that is a big reason why we do a lot of this stuff was we saw this, like, need for more harmonious energy in the space. And that's a role that we need to continue to play. So we'll see.

Kyle Krull - 00:48:26
Totally agree, man.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:48:28
Yeah. Other high level things at the show, I'll just share a couple for me and then curious to hear what you had. Like, hate the fact that climate day and fresh ideas compete with each other.

Kyle Krull - 00:48:41
I thought such a bummer.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:48:43
Yeah. I thought Courtney and Caitlin put together a great agenda and a really well run climate day. I really appreciate the opportunity to moderate a panel myself, but I just thought the room was was thinner than it has been in the past and and should be because of that new overlap with fresh ideas. Like, there's just there's a lot of people that wanna go to both of those things, and it's tough for you to have to kind of commit time one or the other from twelve to five. So I don't know how we could we could fix that, but I I did not enjoy that. That was a that was a negative. A positive was the non staggering of North Hall versus Main Hall. So last year, it was, like, insane to try and navigate the North Hall when that was the only thing open whatever day that was, Tuesday or Wednesday.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:49:23
So it felt way more comfortable in the North Hall the day that all the the entire floor opened. Thursday still felt crazy to me everywhere that I went. Like, Thursday felt packed, especially in Hall E. But I think it was still a better flow just having the entire floor open the entire three days. So, yeah, those are my big two. How about you?

Kyle Krull - 00:49:53
I mean, those are really the biggies for me. I don't I don't feel differently at all. If I I kinda wanna zoom out and think, like, okay. What are some other just general high level trends that I may have observed at the show? Yeah. It's to me, there were three, and I saw a lot of dates, sweetened with dates, date based everything. So that that's interesting. I saw honey too. Honey sweeteners.

Kyle Krull - 00:50:05
Natural sweeteners. I think you nailed it. That's really big. Caffeinated everything. Yep. So somewhere it's ironic to me that this is the natural products I spoke, but I saw in some kind of a showcase somewhere like a it's like a coffee flavored Eggo waffle, which to me is just indicative of the fact that, like, if if that's happening, we know caffeine is going everywhere in the into, like, consumable, like, physical food instead of just drinks.

Kyle Krull - 00:50:23
Mhmm. And then three was, like, Middle Eastern flavors, vibes, and Indian flavors, vibes in a lot of different categories. So those are sort of, like, my top three non regenerative trend takeaways from the show. I don't really have strong feelings for or against any of them. I guess, like, putting caffeine into a product doesn't strike me as, like, incredibly innovative, though I understand the use case, because especially as people are I think I think people are generally kinda moving away from coffee and looking for different alternatives to get caffeine. So Mhmm. I get it. I I might just be biased as someone who intentionally avoids caffeine.

Kyle Krull - 00:51:14
I don't wanna see it creep into every other category, but, you know, maybe I'm on the small end of that, you know, market.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:51:29
I second all those trends. I also think the whole, like, protein thing is obviously huge right now. So that was kind of expected going into the show. Like, everything's gonna have protein added or here's the amount of protein in it. So

Kyle Krull - 00:51:43
that was an important protein. Did you notice any specific like, was it pea protein? Was it whey protein? Did you did you capture any

Anthony Corsaro - 00:51:50
of that? Because I actually didn't

Kyle Krull - 00:51:51
see it as much as you did at the show. And that's not to say that you're you're wrong. Just not I didn't observe it.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:51:56
No. I probably wasn't able to because I'm flying through, you know, the hall so fast trying to just focus on the regenerative brands, but, I've I've seen it validated in a lot of the just general, like, trend follow-up posts or or articles as well. But, no, not not any resonance on, like, specific sources, honestly, on that one. Got

Kyle Krull - 00:52:15
it. Worth worth noting oh, sorry. I interrupted you. You go ahead. You see anything else?

Anthony Corsaro - 00:52:19
You're good. What else? I I've seen some discourse on LinkedIn about, like, people saying innovation was down versus people saying, like, you don't actually know what you're talking about. Innovation wasn't down. You just don't know how to, like, look forward or evaluate it. I'm not an expert in that category, but just from what I do know, I did think it was flat or down. And to me, it seemed more iterative than, like, revolutionary. Like, I didn't leave the show saying, like, wow. That that's, like, a big change or, like, a huge new trend that I wasn't expecting or, like, a bunch of new brands in the specific category.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:52:46
A lot of the ones where there was a major presence like functional beverage or soda, you know, that's been happening for a few years. So it wasn't like a new thing. It felt to me like a lot of brands are really focused on refining and focusing, especially on internal operations and profitability versus, like, kind of chasing big new shiny objects, which I think is just very indicative of the macro environment that we're in right now. So, yeah, that was a that was a couple for me.

Kyle Krull - 00:53:21
I couldn't agree more. I think it makes complete sense to me that as capital becomes harder to access, less pie in the sky innovation is going to take place. And I I had a very similar sentiments both with my own observations at the show and with the the buyers I was able to connect with. So, you know, hey. Like, what what are some interesting things that you've seen? Like, well, it's kinda like, you know, more of the same in a lot of ways. And I think a lot of the brands are, to your point, like, iterating and trying to adopt some of these bigger trends. Like, you mentioned protein.

Kyle Krull - 00:53:41
Another one that we sort of alluded to before is, like, cleaner, like, no seed oils. And people are focused on those supply chain innovations where they're optimizing their LOIs, their list of ingredients, rather than major category expansions for the most part because it's significantly cheaper to do. And it seems to be super on trend right now from a for a variety of reasons and then stack Maha on top of that, and it really feels like people are trying to to capture that. The other thing I didn't see as much as I expected to was GOP one. I was really expecting to see a lot of GOP one stuff all over the place. And maybe it's because it's a trade show and it's not specifically, you know, marketed for consumers, but I was expecting to see more of that direction that I I'm just realizing now.

Kyle Krull - 00:54:25
I I didn't really capture much of that, at least that that I saw.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:54:41
Yeah. I agree with you on that one. And I think related to all of that, I felt a greater awareness in conversation around, like, biohacking and longevity trends, especially when it comes to wearables and also to lab data that is now being democratized and made cheap cheaper. Like, people mention that company, Function Health, multiple times to me in personal conversations, and it was talked about in my panel and I believe in some others. That's a company for those that don't know where you can get a bunch of labs done for supposedly a lot cheaper than, you know, if you had to go through your doctor or you went to the lab directly. But I think there's a really interesting tie between that democratization and the cheapening of those labs. The, the these wearables becoming more abundant and less expensive, AI becoming more, like, in wellness and health and using that data to make recommendations or, you you know, give you information, and then nutrient density and regen. And it's like, what's the confluence of all that gonna be? The super glass half full, we want regen to succeed. We're very biased.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:55:42
Take on that would probably be, you know, all this data is gonna proliferate and people are gonna make healthier decisions that is ultimately gonna be undoubtedly Regen when we have the data to say you should be eating more of this, that, or the other thing. But I think there's also a way where it could totally go awry. So just super interesting to watch. And I don't know I don't know exactly what I think is gonna happen, but I feel the, like, next year or the year after is gonna be really, like, the point of conversation because all that biological research mixed with AI is gonna gonna explode, I think, in the next twelve, twenty four, thirty six months.

Kyle Krull - 00:56:31
I totally agree with everything you just said, and I'm really glad that you tied it back to nutrient density as sort of this this thing that we've been discussing for a few years now. I'm not saying we're the first or the only ones to be focusing on that term or that quality or that attribute or however you wanna label it. But I think that was another one of those trends that shows itself manifests itself in different ways in different places. And I think on stage, in particular with some of the panels, it was very present. And then if you look at how brands are talking about their attributes, it was sort of, like, subliminally present. So I'm excited to see the natural products industry focusing more on that. And to your point, I think there is a world that bodes very, very well for regenerative agriculture.

Kyle Krull - 00:57:08
Of course, there's the other potential where, you know, the Sagentas and the Bayers of the world figure out how to create new pesticides, herbicides, some kind of spray that increase nutrient density and is still detrimental for soil health. Like, that reality is possible. It feels really expensive and further away than improving our farming practices and implementing regenerative practices. So I'm hoping, as as we all are probably listening here, that the continual focus on nutrient density improves the conversion rates for regenerative practices on arable lead.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:57:46
Mhmm. I agree with everything you said. I think they're interesting things to watch. I think there's two things that I'm thinking about or questioning or asking or looking looking to the future is, like, where does bioavailability play into all of this? Because it's one thing to have the nutrient density, but if it's not bioavailable based on the way you're delivering it or processing it or just because of some natural limitation of said product ingredient, etcetera, then it's like it's basically having great gas, but no car to, like, drive around. So, I'm super interested to see how that plays into, especially the wearables. And are we headed to a world where you have a wearable that's gonna tell you the bioavailability? Right? So something maybe has less nutrient density, but it's more bioavailable, so it's actually the thing that you should eat.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:58:26
And then is there a way for brands, products, etcetera, to kinda game the system and turn those not from a objective fact based kind of source of recommendations to, like, a Yelp? Like, you're gonna show up first because we paid you $10 or whatever. So I don't know. That's one thing that I'm that I'm thinking of. And then, you know, from an industry change perspective and a net gain of consumer demand increase for regenerative, like, is all of this just optimization of the existing healthy eating crowd where the demands on the people already doing good are just gonna get harder and we're just optimizing the amount of healthy food that's already being eaten? Are we going to have a net sea change increase in the amount of healthy food being eaten?

Anthony Corsaro - 00:59:09
Like, that to me is is a question that I I don't really know. So those are the two things that I'm kinda pondering or or sitting with.

Kyle Krull - 00:59:22
Yeah. I think to your to your latter point, I think both will end up happening at the same time. To what degree, I don't know. But especially the Maha movement does make me feel like there are more pantries today where people are concerned about what they're putting into their households and into their bodies than ever before, which is fantastic.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:59:38
Yeah.

Kyle Krull - 00:59:38
And I really loved your question on the bioavailability piece because when talking with Eric from Audacious and some of these other nutrient density companies that are really focusing on some of the testing, it makes me realize how much work remains to be done, not just in baselining, quote, nutrient density standards for specific commodity types. We'll go back back to bananas. Like, how much how much of x y z nutrients should be in a regular banana, and how much of an increase do we see in regenerative bananas? That has to happen for the entire food system in a raw capacity. And the bioavailability question makes me think about, will there become a day of reckoning for processing? You know? Because if you think about our industrial methods producing food in The United States, it's really like this is gonna be a huge oversimplification, but it's twofold.

Kyle Krull - 01:00:14
Commodity crops grow as big and as fast as possible and then put them into formats where they can have the longest amount of show shelf stability to reduce potential risk and liability of, you know, food spoilage. So will there become a day where we get to do that same level of nutrient density testing post food processing, and what will that prove? And it kind of, for me, hearkens back immediately to grains and flowers and, like, what feels kinda like the reproliferation of stone ground in many, many different categories, which I think is fantastic. And maybe that category is a little bit ahead of the curve. Mhmm. And I'm just curious to see how that plays out in all these other categories. Mhmm.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:00:58
Yeah. No. I mean, there's there's a shit ton of stuff there. I'm happy we're the guys that get to kinda comment on the things after they're delivered versus have to work the data, capture the data, and organize the data because, I mean, Eric and his team his team and many others do a great job with all that, but I don't I don't envy the task. That's not what I wanna sign up for. It's a lot.

Kyle Krull - 01:01:19
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I had a brief discussion with them at expo, and it sounds like they're so backlogged. Like, they don't have enough equipment to do the testing that they need. So I I think that that should I mean, if I had all the money in the world and I could start a business and, like, what what could potentially move the needle in a fun, interesting way? Like, there seems to be such a huge demand for food testing right now, from all the perspective we just talked about, plus heavy metals and plastic toxicity and all these other things. And as awareness continues to improve around those topics, I think the demand for testing is going to skyrocket. So that's that's an interesting thing to look

Anthony Corsaro - 01:01:55
at. Mhmm. Agreed. There were a couple sound bites that stuck out to me that I just made note of. I'm curious if you have anything to add, but, I'll just share kind of those one by one, and we can riff on them a little bit. But, Ryan from Smoketown, did a did an amazing job in the lightning round, opportunity that he had at Climate Day. And it was kind of all about how regenerative has the advantage, and we can win if we collaborate and work more together. And he laid out a pretty, I think, fun, compelling, and concise case for that. But he had a data point in there that, media mentions of regenerative have grown at over a 40% CAGR since 2020. That is important, I think.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:02:26
I would love to see it be higher, but I think it's significant at the amount that it is. And, you know, we still don't have the data to tie that into the amount of product claims and how it's being marketed to a consumer and the correlation or causation of all those factors. But that overall, I felt like was something I hadn't heard and a good useful data point to cite that, you know, just just caught my eye and won a spotlight.

Kyle Krull - 01:03:03
Yeah. I unfortunately missed his moment in the lightning round, and I wish I could comment more on it. I'm just so bummed that I missed it. But I think Ryan in general brings a really unique purview to the regenerative space, and I love how he takes some of that, like, big CPG framing and applies it to what's happening in the regenerative movement. So there's no doubt in my mind. I'm not surprised at all to hear that you made a really compelling case.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:03:25
Mhmm. Do you wanna touch on the one from Christine in her session? I mean, that's the one that I pulled out that resonated with me the most, but she shared a ton of really good stuff in there.

Kyle Krull - 01:03:34
Yeah. The one AC listed on our outline is, you know, 20% of The US market has values that would support regenerative products, and there's a diversity of demographics across socioeconomic status, education level, etcetera. Basically, everybody wants to be educated about regenerative products and how that impacts themselves, both their health and planetary health. To me, the most interesting point that Christine shared during her talk was the gap between regenerative awareness, I have heard this term, and regenerative understanding. And across all different demographics, that number was roughly 32 percentage points. So So if it was 40% of people understand what regenerative ag is, which to me feels a little bit, what's the word I'm looking for, generous, I think it's probably lower than that. But the awareness within the same survey was, like, 72% have heard the term. So in my mind, the big question then becomes, okay, how do we close that gap?

Kyle Krull - 01:04:15
And to me, the big answer is really what Ryan shared is collaboration between these various groups. And if we can come up with a simplified message that everybody champions and, again, we're gonna sound like like, an echo chamber in here because we've been saying this for years, but it was just it was there's so much proof in her data that to me spoke to this answer of, you know, we can we can really do this if we work together. And the most interesting point was, like, once people understand what regenerative agriculture is, their desire to pay the premium and or make purchases for any brands or products that support those initiatives was, I can't remember the stat, but, like, significantly higher. So that's really, really compelling data, and it really simplifies the objective of the movement in my mind, at least from a retail perspective that there's tremendous opportunity with collaboration.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:05:13
Yeah. I think any anything that would be compelling about this opportunity would come down to two buckets. Right? Like, is there existing unmet demand? And according to the data she shared, there's existing unmet demand if we can basically reach those people better.

Kyle Krull - 01:05:28
Correct. So, yeah, the if there to me is there there is a huge upside of of unmet demand if we can concisely educate people to understand what regen is.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:05:38
Mhmm. So that that's one. And then two is, like, can we increase the amount of unmet demand and, like, qualify that? And I got I got that as a yes also. So once again, all of us doing this work are biased for that to be positive and biased for that to be the outcome. But, the survey that they did and the research they did seem to be very objective and well done. So, I'm gonna take it as a positive and take it as momentum. We look forward and just thank you to Christine and the Regenerified team for their leadership gathering that data and really open source publishing it for the entire industry. They could have done that, just shared it with themselves and their brands, but, you know, and Christine even said this to us that we wanna share it with everyone so we can build the groundswell of of momentum and have more information, which is exactly why we we do everything that we do at the institute with this podcast and everything else.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:06:12
Like, we're open sourcing everything as well so that we can just move forward as fast as possible.

Kyle Krull - 01:06:32
Totally agree. One other piece I wanna touch on from her presentation was what consumers are looking for today and all those different attributes and how they're essentially regenerative agriculture. So if we can just pair regen to those attributes, like Mhmm. It's a huge unlock. So, agree with everything you said. Not anything else I'll I'll wanna add for that specific talk, but that was to me, one of the most interesting moments during climate day was was her specific presentation.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:07:00
She was not during climate day. She was the next day. But In in my mind, if I'm

Kyle Krull - 01:07:04
in a seminar room and listening to this, it's climate day. So it's also hard to tell, like, what day anything is during the expo, but I appreciate the correction.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:07:13
That's true. I don't I just I don't want anyone to question our journalistic integrity. You know?

Kyle Krull - 01:07:19
I mean, all day, they should question mine. No doubt. And I'm glad you're here to hold me somewhat accountable.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:07:28
Alright. Last last couple that I had that really just hit different for me. I was very fortunate to be a part of, like, a small it's about twenty, thirty people, region I roundtable that Carlotta, previously of New Hope now in a role with Informa, the parent company, hosted, which was amazing. So just shout out to Carlotta for her leadership and also for the group that she assembled. It was a really diverse group of brands, farmers, processors, media, kind of events people on the Informa side. Just, yeah, super cool diverse crew that really had a a robust and engaging dialogue for four or five hours. And and two things, a lot of the things said really were, I think, important and kind of paradigm shifting, but two quotes were shared that I just wanted to share with our audience, which Jessica at RegenScore, she shared that, you know, each urban acre emits 80 times more than the most conventionally managed rural acre, which is just, like, insane. And so, you know, her her message is really like, yes, region. Yes.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:08:30
Make agriculture as good as possible, but, like, we need to just support agriculture because from an emissions perspective, like, it's not even close. And, I mean, that that's just staggering, like, 80 times and makes sense when you think about it, but you just don't realize it as you're going about your everyday life as an urban dweller as most of us are. So that would hit different. And then, there was a gentleman named AG Kawamura who grows strawberries here in Orange County. He grows strawberries that are sold in the well picked label if you never picked up that label at your grocery store. He was the secretary of agriculture for California under Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he was just kind of like a old wise elder, in in the group.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:09:08
I don't mean to call him old, but, like, that was his energy, which I really appreciated. And, he talked about how the UN had put out some report where they didn't call farmers and ranchers farmers and ranchers in the report in this big, like, whatever report on food and ag. They called them frontline actors. And he was like, frontline actors. Like, farmers are not frontline actors. Farmers are the people that built the stage that allows humanity to act out its dramas, tragedies, and epics. And I was like, damn. That that hit different.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:09:38
So shout out to AG for that wisdom. That just that that stopped me in my tracks during that conversation.

Kyle Krull - 01:09:55
I love that one. I was not in the room for that, but I think it's a great share. The other one, I can't remember the panel that Heather from Good Sam was on, and I honestly can't remember exactly what she said. But I think she does a fantastic job of, like, saying the quiet part out loud on stage. And I think it's she she does it really, really well. And in particular, in this time, in a way that didn't necessarily, like, point the finger at any one person or organization for doing wrong, but lifting up the potential of how we can all do right. So I appreciate her leadership and her ability to deliver those sorts of sentiments on stage, which I think a lot of people shy away from. So good on her.

Kyle Krull - 01:10:25
And and I wish I could remember specifically, like, what it was that she said. Did you have any recollection?

Anthony Corsaro - 01:10:39
I couldn't make it. I got trapped in a hall.

Kyle Krull - 01:10:42
Right.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:10:42
So I wasn't there. But you and Anne were there, so I, like, felt okay about our our presence there.

Kyle Krull - 01:10:48
Yeah. And she she did a great job as she as she always does. You know? So good on her. Mhmm.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:10:55
One thing we forgot to share on the iHeart region side or the coalition side is we held our first in person event, which was so

Kyle Krull - 01:11:02
I'm gonna forget to talk about that.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:11:03
Yeah. So shout out to Aaron from our team. He organized and and got us some space for Friday morning, and we had a breakfast that we invited basically all the exhibiting coalition brand members and other regenerative brands and various service providers that are current sponsors or potential sponsors and just other other supporters in the industry. And then it was so fun. Like, we live in this virtual Zoom world where you forget everyone has a lower body and is a real human being. And it was just amazing to be with that group in person and super excited to find more ways to to get that group together in person because, I think I can confidently say, like, it just fills people's cup in a in a unique way that we all need more of for sure.

Kyle Krull - 01:11:47
I totally agree. And What really stood out to me about the event is, you know, I mentioned before there's, like, expo safe spaces, right, where there are, I think, according to your stats, you know, 2.1% of exhibiting brands who really, like, believe in this and champion this regenerative movement. And it's probably understating how many people that are actually in the industry who care about it, so wanna caveat that. Mhmm. But for there to be an entire room of people who believe not just in their specific brand or certification, but sort of in our theory of change and how we can work together and to feel the energy of collaboration amongst these various human beings, it was really cool. It was super fun. It felt really positive. It felt really authentic, and it just felt, I don't know, grounded in a place of or a spirit of true collaboration.

Kyle Krull - 01:12:21
And it felt like we were all seen, and we all saw each other. You know? It was just a really cool event.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:12:37
Yeah. Yeah. It was another one of those, like, milestones of progress to think back to these two crazy guys starting a podcast, when they both lived in Bend, Oregon in the summer of twenty twenty two. And, you know, we've given some rallying speeches. We've had some events. Like, we've we've we've done some stuff well. We failed at some stuff, but we're continuing to make progress. And it seems like it's really resonating with the community that we wanna serve, which I think is always the the most important thing.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:13:00
So just shout out to all those folks, who do support us, who also share that vision. And, yeah, can't thank those people enough. It means a lot.

Kyle Krull - 01:13:14
Totally agree.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:13:16
What else, brother? Anything else? I was just gonna say,

Kyle Krull - 01:13:19
what else did we miss? I feel like that was a pretty encompassing recap of Expo West. So if you weren't there, like, you just basically got, like, an expo download from a regenerative perspective. But, yeah, that that feels I'm like re I'm scrolling through the outline to see if we missed anything, but I think we hit it.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:13:34
Yeah. We we are gonna do a q one news roundup at some point. I had some stuff ready for that if we didn't hit enough time here, but we've we've gone an hour and fifteen. So we'll do that for another pod. Man.

Kyle Krull - 01:13:45
Time flies.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:13:47
Yeah. And the march to episode 100, continues. So this is episode 96, and we have some very special guests coming up as we get to to episode 100. So stick with us. Stay tuned. We also have some very important kind of information launching as well on our end. So, just appreciate all y'all for listening. All the support really means the world to us. And, yeah, thank you. Thank you.

Kyle Krull - 01:14:09
Oh, yeah. I'm gonna go make a chai. Thank you for everything. And, yeah, looking forward to 100 getting there.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:14:15
Alright, bro. Appreciate you. For transcripts, show notes, and more information on this episode, check out our website, regen-brands.com. That is regen-brands.com. You can also check out our YouTube channel, ReGen Brands, for all of our episodes with both video and audio. The best way to support our work is to give us a five star rating on your favorite podcast platform and subscribe to future episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. You can also subscribe to our newsletter, the ReGen Brands Weekly, and follow our ReGen Brands LinkedIn page to stay in the know of all the latest news, insights, and perspectives from the world of regenerative CPG. Thanks so much for tuning in to the RegenBrands podcast. We hope you learned something new in this episode, and it empowers you to use your voice, your time, your talent, and your dollars to help us build a better and more regenerative food system. Love you guys.