Catch the 2021 keynote below, recap the day on our YouTube channel, and listen to podcasts from the event with the Presenting Businesses and Famous Founders.
Founder of FFI and the Edible-Alpha® podcast, Tera Johnson, interviewed pathbreaking food and ag innovators whose companies show us how impact investing can change our food system.
Younger innovative farmers and food entrepreneurs from all over the country showcased their enterprises and their impact investment lanes through Early Look Business Presentations.
The event can be live-streamed to viewing parties at collaborating sites, in both rural and urban areas, across the U.S. Contact us if you want to host!
There was an interactive hour of food storytelling brought to you by Mike Costello and Amy Dawson of Lost Creek Farm. Each attendee received a set of recipe cards that tied into the story.
This event offered additional engagement with our participating Edible-Alpha® Live! interviewees, presenting businesses, and the stakeholders that support them.
Edible-Alpha® Live! featured Early Look presentations from younger innovative farmers and food entrepreneurs from all over the country, showcasing their enterprises and their impact investment lanes.
These ten businesses received one-on-one coaching from Tera as well as facilitated peer group meetings and mentorship to help them grow and get capital ready.
Wednesday December 9th 2021 – All times are CST
Wes and Leslie are soil scientists who decided they wanted to farm themselves. Inspired by the farmstead goat cheesemakers in the Madison area, they started their Prairie Fruits and Farm Creamery when they moved to Champaign IL. They make cheese that they sell into Chicago, then added gelato, then started farm dinners and on-farm events. Now they know that their creamery needs to get bigger, but they don’t want to bring the goats into a barn. What does a grass-fed goat dairy look like? Goats don’t graze, they browse, think eating leaves off bushes. This is going to require a completely different production and business model for a goat farm, one that intersects with growing interest in agroforestry and permaculture farming.
Conjure up in your mind a picture of thousands of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico. Then imagine that many monarchs on a farm on their way to Mexico, and the farm is in Wisconsin. Impossible? No. Bryce and Jen’s 230 acres of pollinator-friendly pasture is becoming a resting point for monarchs as they gather and travel to Mexico every year. Now imagine what would be possible if the 230 acres become 5000. The regenerative ag district, “RAD” has a vision for doing just this. Bryce and Jen or Riemer Family Farm, are working with the Southern Wisconsin Land Conservancy and Applied Ecological Services to transform a former golf course into a restored prairie and regenerative farm. This combined with the Reimer’s own farm are the beginnings of a RAD future.
Bison. A symbol of the American west, a sacred being for many indigenous peoples, an “exotic meat” for mainstream consumers. When Sean decided to cash out of the grind of a career in digital marketing in San Francisco, he did the obvious thing: buy a farm in Wisconsin and put bison on it. Actually, the obvious part was starting the digital marketing company and online brand. But it is a journey to go from marketing other people’s things to becoming an online meat brand, even if you are someone like Sean who actually knew how to do the online part. The meat part, not so much in the beginning. Sean will be sharing his story and what’s next for the honest bison.