Regenerative Skills

This episode is the second part in our interview with the cofounders of Climate Farmers, an organization I’ve been working with for almost a year now that is working to build the infrastructure for regenerative agriculture in Europe. In the first part of the interview from last week we’ve covered the challenges of modern farming in Europe and the niche that Climate Farmers is hoping to occupy in the transition to a regenerative agriculture future in Europe. We talked about our own strategy of focusing on direct support for farmers through the different projects and departments within the organisation from the ever growing academy making quality educational resources easy to find, to the remote sensing team helping to gather data and metrics on the improvement of the soil and other ecosystem services as these farms transition to regenerative methods.  To wrap up the conversation we’re going to go back to the beginning and recap the crazy turn of events that got us to where we are less than a year from launching. You’ll get to hear how this small agtech startup has gone from a loose idea to attracting collaboration and support from industries and farmers alike.  The journey is certainly not over, in fact the really challenging parts are still ahead. If you haven’t yet heard the first part of this interview I’ll encourage you to go back and have a listen because it’ll give a lot more context to the wild story that’s about to come. So let’s check back in with Ivo Degn and Philippe Birker to see how this all started.  Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links:climatefarmers.org

If you’ve been listening to more than a few episodes this season, you’ll certainly have heard me mention a few times that I’ve been hosting the monthly expert panel discussions with Climate Farmers, an organisation that is working to promote regenerative agriculture in Europe. The truth is that there’s a much bigger story behind that collaboration and a whole lot more going on than just the panel discussions.  Today I want to begin to share the story and the journey that my colleagues and I have been on for almost a year now. Until recently I’ve been a bit apprehensive to talk too much about the work I’ve been collaborating on with the team at Climate Farmers because it’s still a very new project and it’s taken us a while for us all to get clear about our direction, strategy, and path towards our goals. All of those have become much clearer in the last handful of weeks however and it’s time to unveil this ambitious project and the remarkable people that have worked together to get it off the ground.  So today is going to be the first in a two part interview with Ivo Degn and Philippe Birker, the co-founders of Climate Farmers. In this first part, we’ll be talking about the concept of the organization, the current state of modern agriculture in Europe, and the goals that we’re working towards in order to directly assist farmers in their transition to more profitable and ecologically viable business management in a challenging and fast changing industry. Next week, in part 2, we’ll go back to the beginning and hear from both of them about the wild ride that has brought us so far in such a short time and all the brilliant people that make up the team that is making it all work, so be sure to stay tuned next week as well.  But before we get into the bigger concepts, Let’s start by getting to know Ivo and Philippe, and the ideas that turned into this initiative.  Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links:climatefarmers.org

Welcome to the sixth of the monthly expert panel discussions. As I mentioned before, each month I’ll be hosting discussions and debates between some of the most prominent voices in regenerative agriculture, soil science, restoration land management and more.In this session, I hosted a discussion on the holistic management framework with my friends and colleagues at Climate Farmers, a non-profit organization working to advance regenerative agriculture in Europe.In this panel I got to speak with three of the most experienced and influential educators from the global network of Savory Hubs to share their knowledge about the wide applications of the holistic management framework. Since holistic management is often only associated with animal grazing, I wanted to hear from the women today about how relevant and influential it can be for people, not only in other types of farming businesses, but also in other aspects of life. In my work with the farming community that we’re building across Europe, the topic of holistic management keeps coming up because of this frameworks’ focus on managing the complexity that other forms of decision making work to simplify and reduce. In contrast to those methods, the idea of managing anything, from a business, to a community, relationship, or government, holistically involves understanding the whole and all the complexities within it. This is especially necessary when working with living systems and the unpredictable aspects that come with it.Since these discussions are longer than the regular weekly episodes, I’ll keep the intro short and jump right into the introductions for our panelists. Precious Phiri: is a member of the Regeneration International (RI) steering committee and also serves as RI’s Africa coordinator. She is also a training and development specialist in regenerative environmental issues and community organizing. She recently founded an organization called EarthWisdom, a network which she formed immediately after her full time nine-year career with Savory hub in Zimbabwe. Her work focuses on training rural communities and collaborating with networks in Africa to reduce poverty, rebuild soils, and restore food and water security for people, livestock, and wildlife. Sheila Cooke: works to enable farmers to regenerate soils whilst attaining a higher quality of life. As hub leader for 3LM, Land and Livestock Management for Life, and an Accredited Field Professional with the Savory Institute, Sheila is developing a network of Learning Hubs, Accredited Educators, and Ecological Outcome Verified producers of food and fibre. Sarah Gleason: is a first generation bison rancher based in Hesperus, CO. She entered ranching after building a career first in consumer marketing and later in advocacy for regenerative agriculture and conservation. After working for multiple years with the Savory Institute and Holistic Management practitioners worldwide, Sarah launched into full-time ranching herself. She began her business in 2016, when she purchased her first 15 bred bison. Gleason Bison is a holistically managed, grass-fed bison operation committed to serving its community, regenerating the environment, and producing thriving animals. Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links: savory.global https://www.3lm.network/ http://gleasonbison.com/ https://regenerationinternational.org/

A topic that I’ve been exploring personally for a long time is the concept of regenerative travel. I’ve been travelling my whole life in some way or another from when I was born in Tokyo, Japan and then emigrated to the US with my family when I was 7, through moving 9 times as a kid to taking off independently when I was 17 and traveling and working around the world. Travel has been a lifestyle for me more than a hobby or vacation and I’ve often wondered if my actions and contributions to the places I’ve lived and visited could justify the environmental impact of that way of living.  Through reading and mentorship, my understanding of the concept of regeneration has evolved. I now understand how true regeneration goes beyond the “do good” paradigm to development of the full potential of any whole system you’re working with. Luckily, a dear friend of mine from my time in Guatemala is working on exactly this challenge through an initiative called Naturally Smart Travel.  Leilani Yats is the Founder of Naturally Smart Travel, a tour coordination company partnering with impact investors and social entrepreneurs in the developing world through immersive travel. Previously, her unique experience in the Los Angeles startup industry helped small domestic teams grow into international success. Since 2017, she’s focused on connecting individuals with resources to community and environmentally focused businesses in Guatemala to help all parties thrive. In this interview Leila walks me through the thought process that went into creating the tours and experiences that foster real connections and contributions that go both ways. She explains how tours can break out of the mold that often shows local and indigenous people as exotic and in need of help rather than fostering a deeper understanding of the lives of the people that you’re visiting. We cover some uncomfortable observations from having both lived in popular tourist areas in Guatemala for years and the patterns and assumptions that are often made by visitors who are just passing through.  This is certainly only one part of a much longer conversation that I hope to continue to have around the subject of regenerative travel, but I think that Leila is the perfect person to kick off the dialogue through her work and experience.  So let’s jump right in from the beginning.  Get the resource packet for this episode! Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links: Website: www.NaturallySmart.meFacebook: https://facebook.com/naturallysmarttravelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/naturallysmarttravel/Video: https://vimeo.com/566235203

A lot of the farms that come to mind when I think of regenerative agriculture are smaller, more diverse and quite intensive, with many different crops and animals working in closer proximity with many stacked functions and a niche business model, but what can be done for all those vast fields of monoculture plantings of crops like corn, soy, and wheat that take up so much space in the heartland of the midwestern and western US? Are there regenerative solutions for these massive farms of thousands of acres? Is there hope for farming the plains and savannas through ecological management? For answers to these questions I reached out to Gabe Brown of Brown’s Ranch in North Dakota. A historically challenging environment for agriculture, North Dakota is a place dominated today by massive cattle ranches and monocultures stretching beyond the horizon of dry and windy plains. But in this challenging environment, Gabe has been a pioneer of the soil-health movement and has even been named one of the twenty-five most influential agricultural leaders in the United States. Gabe, his wife, Shelly, and son, Paul, own Brown’s Ranch, a holistic, diversified 5,000-acre farm and ranch near Bismarck, North Dakota. The Browns integrate their grazing and no-till cropping systems, which include cash crops and multi-species cover crops along with all-natural, grass-finished beef and lamb, pastured pork, and laying hens. The Brown family have received numerous awards including a Growing Green Award from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an Environmental Stewardship Award from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the USA Zero-Till Farmer of the Year Award. In this interview I asked Gabe about how he managed to persevere through some very challenging years in the beginning to develop the diversified and healthy landscape that his family manages today. He also tells me a lot about the invisible challenges to this way of farming such as the counter productive incentives of the US Farm Bill and the cultural stigma that can be difficult when making unconventional changes to your farming practices. We also dig into some crucial advice that Gabe has for farmers looking to make a transition to regenerative agriculture from industrial management. This interview gave me a lot of hope that the American plains can be restored without risking food shortages or spikes in food costs. I really hope that any of you listening to this will share this episode with someone you know who works in farming who perhaps hasn’t heard of these possibilities or who thinks that their mechanized monoculture operations can’t be converted or don’t lend themselves to ecological transformation.  Get the resource packet for this episode! Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links: Get the book From Dirt to Soilhttps://brownsranch.us/ understandingag.com soilhealthacademy.org Chelsea Green Publishing – the leading publisher of sustainable living books since 1985.

Three weeks ago I published the episode with Tomas Viguurs on circular mushroom production here in Catalunya and I gave a sneak peak at the second interview I did that day with Sven Kallen. Well today the wait is over and we’re going to dive into the details of Sven’s work of reforestation and agroforestry in some of the most degraded and endangered areas of Europe from the Iberian Peninsula which includes Spain and Portugal, and the Mediterranean basin. This includes many of the most popular vacation destinations on the continent, but also the most rapidly desertifying areas. As the effects of climate change increase and become more severe, we collectively need to rethink how we respond to the geographical zones on the front lines. Luckily, this is Sven’s specialty and life’s work, so I’ll let Sven introduce himself before we dive into the actionable steps to regenerate these high risk zones.   Get the resource packet for this episode! Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links: https://landlifecompany.com/news/better-faster-stronger-the-new-cocoon-lid/ https://volterra.bio/ https://lifeterra.eu/

Welcome to the fifth of the monthly expert panel discussions. As I mentioned before, each month I’ll be hosting discussions and debates between some of the most prominent voices in regenerative agriculture, soil science, restoration land management and more.  In this session, I hosted a discussion on farm business finances with my friends and colleagues at Climate Farmers, a non-profit organization working to advance regenerative agriculture in Europe. In this panel I got two of my favorite voices on the subject of farm economics and business advice to talk about how managing the whole ecosystem of their farms has saved them money and improved the profitability of their businesses. Since these discussions are longer than the regular weekly episodes, I’ll keep the intro short and jump right into the introductions for our two panelists Mark Shepard is the CEO of Forest Agriculture Enterprises LLC, founder of Restoration Agriculture Development LLC and award-winning author of the books, Restoration Agriculture and Water for Any Farm. He is most widely known as the founder of New Forest Farm, the 106-acre perennial agricultural savanna considered by many to be one of the most ambitious sustainable agriculture projects in the United States. Michael Ableman: is a farmer, author, photographer and urban and local food systems advocate who has been farming organically since the early 1970′s and is considered one of the pioneers of the organic farming and urban agriculture movements. MIchael is the author of four trade published books: From the Good Earth, On Good Land, Fields of Plenty, and most recently Street Farm; Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier.  Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links: http://www.restorationag.com/ http://michaelableman.com/ Check out previous Expert Panel discussions https://regenerativeskills.com/regenerating-the-biology-in-your-soil-expert-panel-4/ https://regenerativeskills.com/exploring-regenerative-fashion-expert-panel-3/ https://regenerativeskills.com/the-potential-of-agroforestry-expert-panel-2/

Welcome to the second of the Regenerative Skill Building calls that I host with Climate Farmers, a new organization working to promote regenerative agriculture across Europe. These calls are specifically designed for our growing community of farmers around the continent and regenerative agriculture consultants. We listen to their interests and concerns online and then reach out to the experts who can best answer them and offer guidance. In this second call, I was joined by my good friend Zach Loeks who came to speak about his innovative permabed system of integrating perennial crops into the market garden for long term resilience in both the farm business and the site’s ecology. We cover skills for reading your landscape and imitating natural systems, and that’s all before we opened things up for listener questions. Zach has been a great contributor to this podcast over the years and was the first of my contacts to actually come out to Guatemala where I used to live and teach a permaculture design certification with me and the team at Atitlan Organics.  So be sure to check out some of the previous episodes I’ve done with him in the past at regenerativeskills.com where you’ll also find links to where you can buy his books with an exclusive discount code in the show notes for this episode. So let’s get started.   If you’re interested in signing up for any of the great courses from ecosystem.com including Food Guild Design, Home Garden Pro, Permabeds, and Community Food Security, I’ve got links to all of them on the show notes page for this episode. Full disclosure, I do get a small commission if you buy through this link, but you also get a significant discount and it’s a great way to support this show without having to donate directly.  Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links: Check out the great list of courses in ecosystemu.com and get big discounts by signing up through the links here. You'll love Food Guild Design, Home Garden Pro, Permabeds, and Community Food Security https://www.ecosystemsolutioninstitute.com/ zachloeks.com ecosystemu.com

I’ve been making some really cool contacts here in Catalunya recently, and even though site visits and trips out to projects have been stalled as the country only slowly starts to open up, I’ve been jumping at any chance to get back out in the field.  One of the projects that I’ve been most excited to get back to see since my first visit back in December is the farm at Mas Rajols and the gourmet mushroom growing operation that it hosts called Mycelio.  I first got invited to come to see them by my friend Sven Kallen who works with the European Commission’s Life Terra initiative and is the founder of Volterra, both of which are strongly involved with tree planting projects around the continent. Back then they were still just getting set up, but on this second visit just a couple weeks ago, I got to see just how far the operation has come in its development and in the setup of their production facilities. I’ve been blown away by just how well thought out the whole project is. They turn waste products from the leavings of the timber industry into multiple high value products and integrate them with the existing beef cattle operation on the farm that they collaborate with. In the interview in today’s session I got to sit down with Tomas Viguurs the product manager of Mycelio and Jason Statham lookalike (that's a joke, but check out his picture on our Instagram and you’ll see what I mean), to talk about all of the motivations and processes that they’ve connected to create a high value, gourmet product that also gives back to their environment and local community. So let’s jump right into things and I’ll let Tomas introduce himself.  Get the resource packet for this episode! Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links: https://mycelio.eu/ https://www.instagram.com/myceliorganic/

Get Richard's Mini Series!And all the free resources that come with it There’s two quick things I want to mention before we get to the interview. The first is that these skills calls are a new feature of the show that I’ll be running with Climate Farmers in our ongoing effort to support and promote regenerative agriculture in Europe and are now going to be offered live every two weeks. These calls will feature interviews and presentations from experts and innovators in farming from around the world, but beyond the people we feature and the topics we cover, there are also extended listener questions and discussion sessions at the end that I won’t be publishing either on the podcast nor on our Youtube channel. The reason for this is that we’ve observed that there’s a reluctance in the farming communities to openly share mistakes and difficulties in their journeys with the public, and I completely understand that, There’s plenty of things I’ve screwed up on in this business and back when we were designing the farm back in Guatemala that I didn’t put out to the whole world. But in order for our members to feel secure in communicating honestly about the aspects of their lives and operations that they’d rather not show on social media and their own educational content, these sessions are always kept private. We also keep the attendance for the Skill Building calls capped at 25 participants per call so everyone gets a chance to share and ask questions if they want. So If you’re a farmer in Europe, regardless of whether you’re running a regenerative, an organic, or a conventional farm, we’d love to have you on a call and hear about what you’re working on or wrestling with so we can support you and connect you with others near you. We know it can be difficult, often working out in the fields alone or feeling isolated in rural areas, so come and join the Climate Farmer’s network where you’ll always be in good company. You can register to attend a live call through the links on our instagram account or on our website at climatefarmers.org The second opportunity I want to tell you about is that Richard perkins, The speaker on today’s episode, is now offering an intimate look into how he runs his highly successful farm in a new free mini series on profitable regenerative farming which includes some great resources including a downloadable guide on how to build his roll-away nest-boxes, an editable spreadsheet download for the financial modeling of his beef enterprise, and a lot more. The mini series is open now and is only available for a limited time. It’ll shut down on June 10th so don’t twiddle your thumbs on this one. Check out the link in the show notes for this episode and start your learning journey right away! Now with those announcements out of the way, lets jump into the episode  Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community Links: https://www.ridgedalepermaculture.com/