Description

Description

Grown to Heal makes a simple but urgent case: the food that’s best for us also tastes better, sells better, and heals the land it’s grown in. Drawing on eighteen wide-ranging conversations with the scientists, farmers, chefs and entrepreneurs remaking the food system and building on a decade of the pioneering podcast Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food, editors Antonella Ilaria Totaro and Koen van Seijen trace a single thread connecting soil health, food quality and human wellbeing.

Structured in three parts – Planting Seeds, Taking Root and Bearing Fruit – the book moves from the science of nutrient density to real-world case studies of businesses proving that regenerative practices pay. Readers meet a Michelin-starred chef for whom flavor is a direct readout of soil health, a citrus grower whose regenerative harvest tested at eight times normal nutrient levels, and a Tulsa clinic that saved $750,000 in healthcare costs by prescribing vegetables to patients with type 2 diabetes.

Rigorous yet accessible, Grown to Heal speaks to all of us – farmers, policymakers, investors, eaters, alike –and shows that restoring the health of soil, food and people can also be good business and is one of our key paths toward a regenerated, thriving civilization.

Editors

Antonella holds a PhD in Innovation for Circular Economy from the University of Turin. As an environmental journalist, she writes for the publisher Edizioni Ambiente and Materia Rinnovabile magazine, covering innovation, sustainable food systems and business model transitions.

Koen has interviewed over 450 farmers, investors, scientists and fund managers to explore how finance can support soil health, biodiversity and resilient communities. He is Relationship Manager at Toniic, a global network of impact investors and co-founded the Generation-Re investment syndicate, which focuses on regenerative agriculture and food investments.

Contents

I Planting seeds

1 What your food eats – Anne Biklé, biologist and author of What Your Food Ate & David R. Montgomery, geologist and author of Dirt and Growing a Revolution

2 True flavor only comes from good soil – Dan Barber, chef at Blue Hill and founder at Row 7 Seeds

3 The commodity trap – Eric Smith, Edacious

4 What the herd knows about nutrition – Fred Provenza, Utah State University and author of Nourishment

5 Solutions that work for all farmers – Yasmine Cathell, Soil Sommelier Initiative

6 The power of the sun – Olivier Husson, CIRAD (French agricultural research center)

II Taking root

7 Nutrient-dense food is our biggest lever – Dan Kittredge, Bionutrient Food Association

8 Agroecologically grown trumps supermarket food – Stephan van Vliet, Center for Human Nutrition Studies at Utah State University

9 Certifying nutrient quality – Pierre Weill, Bleu-Blanc-Cœur

III Bearing fruit

10 The vegetables that saved $750K – Erin Martin, FreshRx Oklahoma

11 Nutrient density data is untapped opportunity – Tina Owens, Nutrient Density Initiative

12 Supermarkets don’t pay for quality, so sell to those that do – Erwin Westers, Seed Farmer

13 Rethinking who breeds our seeds – Nicolas Enjalbert, SeedLinked

14 Food is medicine – from healthy soils to healthy societies – Zuzanna Zielińska, HarvestCare

15 Reparation through Indigenous baby food – Zach Ben, Bidii Baby Foods

16 Regenerative citrus with eight times the nutrients – Herb Young, Squeeze Citrus

17 Omega-3 rich, certified, mercury-safe seafood – James Arthur Smith, Seatopia

18 From Noma to circularity and market disruption – Matt Orlando, chef at Amass and founder at Endless Food