Building a sustainable future — thinking in terms of millennia
By Alasdair Crosby, Jersey Evening Post, November 10, 2025
After meeting ‘impact and sustainability pioneer’ Peter Michel Heilmann at the Regen Gathering Jersey event earlier year, Alasdair Crosby explores the entrepreneur’s ideas about sustainable farming and his ‘1000 Year Vision’ concept for stewards of the land.
THERE I was, attending the recent REGEN (regenerative farming) Gathering, as a reporter, quietly minding other people’s business and doing no harm to anyone, when this chap came along and sat down near me. We got talking and he introduced himself: Peter Michel Heilmann, from The Netherlands.
Alasdair Crosby (left) and Peter Michel Heilmann at the REGEN Gathering Jersey 2025. Photo courtesy of the Heilmann Family.
He told me that India Hamilton from HYPHA Consulting (the organisers of the event) had invited him to visit Jersey (he had never been to here before) to participate in the REGEN Gathering.
He introduced himself as an impact and sustainability pioneer: he had co-founded and led a number of successful ventures and had written seven books in English and Greek, including one on “The Future of Responsible Investing” in 2010. Two years ago, he started the Farming Without Bank movement in his home country. For the past six months, he and his family (his wife, Mieke and seven-year-old son Ravi, whom he is home educating) had been on tour across Europe, living in a camper van, and touring most latterly in Wales, Ireland and England. It had been, he said, a transformative journey.
Asked what was the point of his journey, he said: “I want to empower pioneering family farms working with Nature rather than against it and to help these land stewards get out of their uphill struggles. I have developed a ‘1,000 Year Vision’ combined with a concrete financial roadmap and hands-on guidance.”
‘My vision is for all farmers and anyone who stewards the land to have a 1,000 Year Vision for their land. Once you have that on paper, you create a roadmap. What is needed to get there? Capital, people, planning permission, licenses, machinery... The money aspect then also needs a strategy of how do you do that.
“We are following the signs (followthesigns.earth) we receive; we are planting seeds of inspiration. Going from farm to farm, region to region, and country to country, we are assisting and guiding family farmers and land stewards with becoming future proof, creating a 1,000 Year Vision for their farm and land as well as a roadmap on how to get there.
“That is all about making our planet a better place and making your business more successful.”
He explained further that he was a global pioneer in regenerative design, finance and sustainability. Peter Michel is the founder of WholistiQ, former managing partner of Nordic Circular Hotspot, co-founder of the Global Compact Network in Finland and Greece, and he was part of the Founder’s Circle of the B Corp Community in Europe.
He launched Eco-Network in 1993, one of the first B2B sustainability portals, and later served as president of EuroCharity [now Global Sustain Group], growing it into a leading social entrepreneurship model in Europe.
Peter Michel’s work spans continents, shaping how we actually think about circular economies, leadership and regenerative systems. And right now he’s on a quest to support farmers in creating their own 1000 Year Vision, which is a roadmap that empowers them to thrive while regenerating the land.
Since visiting Jersey he has been working on a 700-hectare estate in Italy and currently they are in South Africa. A film-making team from The Netherlands is currently making a documentary series called Follow the Signs, with each episode focusing on family farmers who are doing amazing things, but often struggling to finance their vision and expansion plans. The first episode of this new docuseries will be released on the Internet in spring next year.
We have kept up our acquaintanceship by e-mail. Speaking afterwards about his visit to Jersey, he said: ‘We had never been to Jersey before and came with an open mind and heart, and without any particular agenda. We stayed five very inspiring, eye-opening days and we learned a great deal from your beautiful island.
Alan Le Maistre, CEO, National Trust for Jersey (left), who comes from a family which has farmed the Island’s land for eight generations, standing in front of activist Nick Viney’s unique artwork during REGEN Gathering Jersey 2025. Nick is an artist, regenerative farmer in Dartmoor, veterinary nurse, public speaker, rewilder and restorer of Nature using Feminine Principles. “For me, the birds are the barometer of the health of the land. The absence of birds is not a good sign” (Red-Billed Choughs were native to Jersey). She is also one of the Founding Farmers of the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA). Photo courtesy of the Heilmann Family.
“We were very impressed with the calibre of people from different countries gathered at the Regen Gathering Jersey and enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Le Maistre family, who manage the Le Tacheron Farm. It is amazing to see how their family has over the centuries managed to thrive and build a strong legacy with a bright and clear vision of the future of the land they are stewarding and their family farm.
Peter Michel and his family enjoyed a trip to SCOOP during their time in Jersey
Peter Michel and his family enjoyed a trip to SCOOP during their time in Jersey. Photo courtesy of SCOOP.
“My wife and our son went shopping at the consumer-led SCOOP (The Sustainable Cooperative). They were impressed with the large and rich variety of organic products and produce on offer. A local Jersey farmer came to stock the SCOOP shelves with his own dairy products himself, which was really unique to see. This “one-stop-shop” offering local and foreign organic products we found to be really valuable. You could take your own granola, nuts, pasta and other things without packaging, bringing your own jars and bags, and thereby reducing packaging waste and closing the loop locally. SCOOP had only a few organic eggs on offer, which we think could be improved, perhaps with the addition of an additional (local) supplier.”
“I met many interesting people at the Regen Gathering, including Doug Richardson, a 16th-generation farmer and president of the Jersey Farmers Union, who invited me afterwards to his family farm to talk about his business activities, his family’s legacy in the Island, and his future plans. We also spoke at length about a new 1000 Year Vision and regenerative steward-ownership model that I have created.
Jersey Farmers Union president Doug Richardson and Peter Michel Heilmann in front of Jersey’s sole miscanthus field. Photo courtesy of the Heilmann Family.
“This new concept is currently being rolled out in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy and other European countries, but also beyond Europe. I was particularly impressed with Doug’s circular economy activities, turning used wooden pallets into useful new products, exporting them and saving the Jersey government a lot of money every year. My wife and I recently bought his hardwood logs at a local Co-Op convenience store in Chew Magna, Southwest England, which is an amazing achievement. What we also love from Doug is that he has the only miscanthus field, of one acre, in the Island, which he planted in 2005. This is also known as elephant grass. It is an experiment with a lot of potential, and Doug’s original idea was to turn it into liquid fuel (biodiesel).”
He continued: “One of the biggest, if not the biggest, challenge in the Island is the availability of land being scarce. Access to land for people who wish to produce regeneratively and do so profitably is virtually impossible, especially with today’s land prices, unless they inherit the land from their family.
“Just one company, Albert Bartlett, controls the production of the Island’s Jersey Royals, partnering with eight generational farming families across 5,000 vergées and forming the majority of Jersey’s fresh produce exports. Twelve milk producers control virtually the rest of the Island’s agricultural land. What we found interesting is that agriculture (still) accounts for around 51% of Jersey’s total land area, although this figure may vary slightly depending on how land use is defined.
“During our stay we learned a few new words, such as vergées, vraic, and côtil.”
It sounds as if his visit was quite educational.
He also noticed that that accessing finance to farm regeneratively or invest in the regenerative and circular economy was quite challenging. This could be solved by setting up a local foundation or trust, which could help safeguard that the next generations would be able to farm and regeneratively steward the land. The non-profit entity could also attract philanthropic, catalytic and other forms of capital that could be used, for example, for protecting Nature, enriching biodiversity and education. It also helps protect the purpose of the land, the legacy and the values that are so important for the Island, the community around the farm as well as the people stewarding the land.
“By embracing the 1,000 Year Vision and a regenerative steward-ownership model, local farmers, young and old, could ensure the future of farming in Jersey. It is very important that Jersey invests more in food sovereignty.
“I am a very big believer that you can do things also without subsidy as such. A lot of things can come from the private sector and from having a healthy business.”
Asked what was his single most important piece of advice for people who wanted, against the odds, to make a farming career, he said: ‘I would say stay grounded, create a 1,000 Year Vision for your business, your family, your farm or your estate. Collaborate, don’t compete, right? Work together as much as possible and find new instruments for financing your business or your farm; don’t just look at the classical ways of doing things.”
His own business is part of the European AgriFood Co-Funding Alliance, which brings together philanthropic and impact-driven funders to co-invest in initiatives that drive systemic transformation in Europe’s agrifood sector. It is grounded in a shared belief that transforming agrifood systems requires more than isolated funding; it requires collaboration, aligned strategies, and a systemic lens.
He explained: “We had recently our monthly call and it’s 25 families and foundations who banded together to provide catalytic capital to regenerative initiatives and ventures and businesses and farms for things that normally other capital providers wouldn’t be interested in or would need that first mover, right, up to 4 million euros we invest. and then others will follow.
“So, it’s very important that you be not only the change that you want to see in the world, but also finance that change that you want to see in the world, right? And inspire others around you who are like-minded, soul-minded and heart-minded people to make it happen. And then I think things will move.”
- For more information about the Follow the Signs documentary series, visit: https://docufilm.nl/en/follow-the-signs/.
The next Regen Gathering will be held from September 11-12, 2026.