Ecotone Chief People and Sustainability Officer Stendert Krommendam on food system change and why regenerative agriculture is ‘a widely misused concept’

As the top sustainability leader at European organic food group Ecotone, Stendert Krommendam has a lot to say about what’s blocking the transformation of our food system – from contradictory policies and incentives to a lack of awareness of the “true price of food”.

Ecotone – owner of organic brands like Clipper, Bjorg and Kallø – was born of a Dutch trading company created in 1765, but has been focused almost entirely on organic food supportive of biodiversity for the past 10 years.

Can agriculture be regenerative without being organic?

“Regenerative is a widely misused concept, even though the origins and intent behind it are very good. Often people only use one or two practices, like cover crops, but then they still have large monocultures and they still use heavy pesticides. That's not going to change the game at all,” he warns.