Regenerative Skills

Today we’re back with Erik Ohlsen, founder of both Permaculture Artisans, one of the preeminent ecological landscaping companies in the US, and the Permaculture Skills center a vocational training school that offers advanced education in ecological design, landscaping, farming, and land stewardship. Erik is also the author of several books including “The Forest of Fire,” Activate Your Joy,” and most recently “The Ecological Landscape Designer” an essential manual for anyone aspiring to make a living in eco- design. Though it’s long overdue, I spoke with Erik to get to better understand the intensity of the wildfires that have ravaged California and parts of the western US in recent years, and the factors that caused them. Erik explains how fire can be a regenerative force for the ecology of many forests and how the indigenous people of the western United States have managed fires strategically for thousands of years. We talk about how communities can work together to manage the risks of their ecosystems and avoid the catastrophic damage that fires have caused in previous years. We also explore some of the wisdom and lessons that Erik has learned in more than 20 years running his permaculture landscaping business and the challenges of meeting clients needs while including the holistic health considerations of nature. Like many of the more seasoned and experienced professionals that I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to on this show, Erik shys away from making specific recommendations for techniques or designs and encourages people to cultivate a deeper understanding of their place and context before making assumptions about how to manage their land or even businesses. This is a great episode for people looking to better understand fire-prone ecologies, but also for people who enjoy the challenge of considering a deeper understanding of their relationship to natural systems in general. Resources: Listen to Erik’s first interview with Abundant Edge Erik’s website Permaculture Artisans The Permaculture Skills Center Get the book “The Ecological Landscape Designer”

Today’s conversation was recorded back in the last few weeks before I left Guatemala when I had a chance to sit down with my good friend and fellow permaculture educator, Mordur G’ott, but we all call him Moli.Mörður or Moli is a permaculture pioneer in Iceland who has been travelling between countries to learn and share what he knows. In Iceland he has hosted multiple events and PDS's with legendary teachers like Albert Bates and Robyn Francis among others. In this session Moli and I speak about the more problematic aspects of the permaculture pedagogy that we’ve found in practice. As with any teaching methodology, permaculture can become dogmatic and even cult-like when practitioners take certain teachings as gospel and forget the essential aspects of observation, reassessment, and flexibility when techniques don’t apply to your context. Moli offers great insights from his years as a permaculture educator and project coordinator on some of the aspects of permaculture that he feels need deeper explanation and clarification to help avoid pitfalls and misunderstandings, especially from people who are new to the concepts and often don’t have any experience working directly with nature to draw from. Many of you may find that you disagree with some or all of Moli’s conclusions or maybe know of elements of permaculture teaching that weren’t mentioned in this episode that you think are essential to include in a conversation about the shortcomings or undesirable aspects surrounding permaculture. If that’s the case, I would love to hear your opinions. You can comment in the threads below or email me directly at info@abundantedge.com. This is a controversial topic that I’m looking forward to exploring further Resources: Permavillage.net Reach out to Moli on Facebook Moli’s Patreon For years now, I’ve been hearing feedback and questions from listeners of this podcast. Many of you out there have been piecing together your education. You’ve taken your PDC, you may have taken some other gardening or more advanced design courses, and though you’re passionate about ecological work, many of you still lack the confidence to break out on your own and start working as professional designers. That’s why I’m really excited to tell you about the new Digital permaculture design course, taught by Dan Halsey, the founder of Southwoods Ecological design and United Designers Intl. In just five days this online intensive will guide you through every part of the design process from client intake to the final presentation with specific focus on digital design and drawing. You’ll also get a year of access to the Permaculture Plant Database, live interactive online classes, access to the United designers symbols library, files, professional templates and much more. This course is a fast track to working as a professional on the cutting edge of ecosystem regeneration and for a limited time, listeners of this show can get $100 off the course by entering the code AEpodcast at checkout. The course starts on July 29th so hurry to reserve your place at permacultureprofessionals.com And if you want to learn more about Dan Halsey and his work, checkout the interview I did with him about running a professional design company in episode 117 or by clicking the link in the show notes of this episode We need professional ecological designers more than ever. Sign up for the Digital Permaculture design course today at permacultureprofessionals.com

In the last few episodes I’ve spoken to a number of designers and business advisors who’ve specialized in regenerative business planning and ecological work, and today’s guest many of you may remember from the very early days of this podcast.  In this episode I had the pleasure of talking with my friend Scott Gallant. It's been almost three years since we spoke on this podcast and he was one of the first 20 interviews that I did back in season one. When we spoke last he was just starting out with his design firm “Porvenir Design.” now almost three years in, he's amassed a lot of experience and knowledge, especially around tropical ecosystems and the challenges of the business side of permaculture design.  In this episode we talked a lot about his transition from working at Rancho Mastatal to working on his own design and consultancy firm, some of the challenges that he's had in finding clients, working through designs, and navigating the intricacies of tropical ecosystems. We also go into detail about doing “due diligence” before implementing projects and we go into detail about some of the nuances and key things to understand about tropical ecosystems and how they differ from others. Though rainy areas like those in Costa Rica, where Scott is based, are generally considered non-brittle ecosystems, there are still a lot of things to understand and observe before making intelligent and informed designs for holistic systems. Towards the end Scott also gives advice for people who are looking to start out with their own design and consultancy firm, what they should look out for, and some of the unexpected challenges that they might want to consider.  Now before we get started with this episode I had something really weird happened during the recording. Scott’s side recorded just fine without any problems with the audio, but for some reason my side recorded my voice extremely deep and I have no idea how to fix this. Luckily it didn't slow down or speed up the audio in any way, it just makes me sound like Barry White or a much manlier version of myself, so bear with me and know that it is me speaking even though it sounds nothing like me. Resources: Porvenir Design’s website Join the Porvenir PDC

As I continue to explore the myriad options that exist for profitable regenerative work, I keep coming back to the business aspects of impact and integrity entrepreneurship. One of the people that I’ve come to rely on for professional perspectives in this sphere is Pete Widin, Founder of the Epic Eco Designer. I had the chance to catch up with him for today’s session where we explore many aspects of the personal and external challenges of finding holistic success in an ecological business. In this interview with Pete we break down some of the challenges that we both faced in getting our design and consulting businesses off the ground and some of the most important take-aways that we learned from. Pete talks about the common challenges that he sees from the people that he coaches and stresses the importance of doing the inner work to understand how you want to grow. He also shares some tips on marketing strategies to help attract your ideal clients and reach a larger audience. As we’ll repeat a few times in this session, a lot for Pete’s advice applies to any business type and not just ecological designers and consultants so I’m sure nearly all of you will get some value out of this one Resources: Learn more about Pete’s work The Epic Eco Designer on FB Pete on FB Pete on IG

Building on the theme of profitable ecosystem regeneration, I spoke to Gregory Landua, CEO and co-founder of the Regen Network. Gregory has worked in ecosystem regeneration for a while. Formerly working as the CEO of Terra Genesis, nova chocolate, the Regrarian’s platform and Gaia University. He is also the co-author of the groundbreaking book Regenerative Enterprise: Optimizing for Multi-Capital Abundance, and of The Levels of Regenerative Agriculture, In this interview Gregory gives an overview of what the Regen network is and aims to accomplish. Specifically, we explore the roles of decentralized technology including the emerging potential of the blockchain to create secure networks that facilitate collaboration, consensus, agreements, and community. We also talk about what systemic changes would need to happen to make permaculture type stewardship of the land our default as a culture rather than a fringe practice. Gregory also explains how technology can be leveraged for connecting people to crucial information and to reach communities that have been left behind in the industrialized information age. Though we don’t cover the job market in detail in this episode, I’m hoping that this conversation could inspire those of you who have studied or who work in IT and programming to see some ways that you could use your skills and experience to work towards environmental restoration and regeneration. We certainly need everyone’s contributions in this effort and gardening and farming are by no means the only ways to help. The exploration of how technology can be harnessed for a global shift in consciousness and renewed cultural priorities is a topic that I’ll be increasingly exploring on this podcast and I would love to hear from any of you listening if you have information or ideas on how the incredible power of technology can be used to buck the trend that has been disconnecting us from our natural world and our local communities. Or, if you believe that technology can only facilitate disconnection, what alternative solutions are there to our increasing dependence on digital connectivity that you might propose? You can post comments and feedback on the website or email me directly at info@abundantedge.com. I really hope to continue this exploration with all of you. Resources: Regen Network website Gregory on Facebook Gregory on Twitter Gregory on Linkdin Buy the book Regenerative Enterprise: Optimizing for Multi-capital Abundance info@regen.network

One of the most common concerns I hear from the regenerative community is how someone could make a good living while working directly on projects that regenerate our planet. While there are many different ways to do this, it seems that the dominant narrative in business tells us that the most profitable job prospects are those that are destroying our natural world. Exploitative petroleum companies post record profits while unethical banking practices pay out massive bonuses and manufacturing covers our landscapes in trash. But I know a growing number of people who are pioneering new options for ecological work and making a good wage in the process. Though this is rarely ever their primary motivation to do what they are passionate about, it’s important to know that you don’t have to compromise a life of holistic abundance to dedicate your time to regenerative work, and that’s why I’ll be focusing in the upcoming weeks on profitable businesses that are doing just that. Specifically, I’ll be speaking to leaders who are offering solutions to conscious and ecological businesses that help them break through their financial constraints and into profitability in more than just a monetary way. To start this series off, I had the pleasure of connecting with a fellow Minnesotan and one of my heroes in ecosystem regeneration, Daniel Halsey, of Southwoods Ecosystem Ecological Design. Dan has worked all over the world as a designer and consultant and has been a co-founder of the Permaculture Research Institute for cold climates, the Natural Capital plant database, and most recently, United Designers Permaculture design cooperative. With experience working in central America, western and southern Africa, the Iberian peninsula and all over north America from Alaska to the southern mainland, Dan’s perspective on patterns and local cultural considerations is truly impressive. In this interview we discuss the implications of the destruction that humans are having on the planet which stretch far beyond carbon emissions and climate change. Dan talks about some of the details and observations from his many projects. We then switch to focus on the business aspect of running an ecological design and consultation firm. Dan and I go over the importance of asking the right questions and how important it is to have a design criteria list for gathering information and recording observations. We also go over everything from attracting clients, the advantages and challenges of collaboration, profiles of the organizations that he’s helped to start and much more. There is one section of the interview where Dan shares his screen to show me parts of the functionality of the Natural Capital plant database that is hard to understand over audio, but I’ve uploaded the video to the show notes for this episode at abundantedge.com so you can watch and follow along Resources: Southwoods Ecosystems Natural Capital plant database United Designers Permaculture Design Cooperative https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0frUpek-hQ

We’ve reached the last episode in this month’s focus on fixing the food system. In the last three weeks we’ve talked about how co-op grocery stores offer real hope for transforming the supply and distribution of food by offering an alternative to the monopoly of the grocery giants. We’ve covered the power and importance of indigenous food and land management, and we’ve also explored the joys and realities of growing your own food on a residential scale. To round this all off, I had the pleasure of speaking to Meredith Leigh, the author of “The Ethical Meat Handbook.” Meredith has worked as a farmer, butcher, chef, teacher, non-profit executive director, consultant, and writer for the past 17 years, all in the pursuit of sustainable food The industrial meat industry, in my opinion, is the epitome of what is broken in our food system and is a glaring example of the disconnect between humans and healthy natural systems, but Meredith shows us how we can reconnect with animals by treating every step in the process from raising, to slaughter, butchery and cooking with respect and care. In this interview we start by acknowledging the broken and unhealthy state of meat consumption. We also go in depth about the environmental impacts, issues surrounding animal welfare, and the health problems of an imbalanced diet. Meredith then explains how a healthy and reverent relationship to animals and all their products could look like through real examples of ecological management of livestock systems, mindful slaughter, home butchery methods, and preservation through curing, fermentation and cooking. This is one of the most holistic and nuanced perspectives on every aspect of meat that I’ve come across that even treats vegan and vegetarian perspectives on the topic with compassion and understanding. Meredith herself was vegan before getting involved with butchery and animal care so I encourage you to listen through the full episode before jumping to conclusions on the angle that this interview takes. I also recognize that everything about meat from animal care, to diet, slaughter and cooking are very contentious topics at the moment and I would love to hear from you about how you feel and relate to the opinions expressed in this session, so please leave respectful comments and feedback under the show notes for this episode, or any other episode for that matter, at abundantedge.com or email me directly at info@abundantedge.com. Resources: Buy the book “The Ethical Meat Handbook” Buy the book “Pure Charcuterie” Meredith’s website Meredith Leigh on instagram

Continuing with this month’s focus on fixing the food system, I wanted to go back to basics and discuss the practicalities and challenges of growing your own food with just a modest sized yard. I reached out to Crystal Stevens who is an author, an artist/art teacher, a folk herbalist, a regenerative farmer, and a Permaculturist. She is the author of two award-winning books, Grow Create Inspire, and Worms at Work. And is also releasing a new book with New Society publishers yearly next year called Your Edible Yard. I this interview I spoke with Crystal about her learning experiences in growing her own food in a few different environments. She also goes in depth about the practicalities of time investment, tools and equipment, and maintenance and planting schedules. We discuss how realistic it is for someone working full time and with only a small yard to produce a meaningful amount of their own food, and share stories of the unexpected joys that make gardening much more of a pleasure than extra work. Resources: Find all of Crystal’s books here Pre-order the book “Your Edible Yard” growcreateinspire.com

In continuing this month’s focus on fixing the food system I had the pleasure of speaking to a personal hero of mine, Sean Sherman, author of the “The Sioux Chef.” Sean has been the recipient of a First Peoples Fund Fellowship, the Bush Foundation Fellowship, National Center’s 2018 First American Entrepreneurship Award, 2018 James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook, and a 2019 James Beard Leadership Award. Sean has been cooking around the US and internationally for the last 30 years and his main focus has been on the revitalization and awareness of indigenous foods systems in a modern culinary context.  Sean has also studied extensively on his own to determine the foundations of these food systems and to gain a full understanding of bringing back a sense of Native American cuisine to the modern world.  In this interview Sean and I talk about how he became passionate about the history and traditions of indigenous food. He starts by educating me on how North America got to the point where indigenous culture and food systems have been all but wiped out, and why it’s so important for us to reconnect with the native plants and animals that used to nourish the original peoples of North America. We also cover traditional farming and land management methods, why they’re an essential part of switching to a more ecological food system, and the health benefits that this way of eating can have on our bodies as well as the land. Sean also give his advice on how to transition to a pre-colonial food system that goes much further than just the native traditions of North America. This is one of the most essential perspectives on fixing the food system through holistic means that connects nutrition to land stewardship, cultural reconnection and spiritual revival. Resources: buy the book “The Sioux Chef” The Sioux Chef website The Sioux Chef on FB The Sioux Chef on Twitter NATIFS website

Today I’ll be kicking off another month dedicated to an important topic in regenerative living. For a long time now, our food system has been a primary indicator for so many markers of health in our society, from the way that our food is produced, what kinds of food we eat, how we cook, how it affects our health and even our ethics as consumers. For the next four weeks I’ll be taking a look our food system from a variety of different view-points and analysis in order to shed light on some of the lesser know factors that influence how we eat and how our dietary choices shape the food industry at large. To kick off this series I spoke with Jon Steinman, author of the new book “Grocery Story: the promise of food co-ops in the age of grocery giants.” Now Jon has studied and worked with everything about food for more than twenty years. He formerly produced and hosted a popular podcast called Deconstructing Dinner, was a writer and host for a web series by the same name, and now curates the annual “Deconstructing Dinner” film festival of compelling food documentaries. Jon was also an elected director from 2006-2016 of the Kootenay Co-op – Canada's largest independent retail consumer food co-op, serving as Board President from 2014-2016 Now I consider myself fairly well informed about the food industry from personal research and that fact that in the last decade I’ve worked directly in many branches of the industry from refrigerated shipping, industrial farms, organic farms, fish processing, many different roles in restaurants, and even the permaculture farm that many of you have heard me talk about for over a year now, but I never knew so much about the influence that the giant grocery chains and supermarkets have on every aspect of our food from how it’s grown till it gets to our plates. This is a very eye opening look, not only at the broken aspects of the food industry, but the very tangible and accessible solutions that co-op grocery stores can be, not only for getting access to better food and transforming the way the industry is incentivized to operate, but also for the positive impact that co-ops can have on our communities and local economies. We also talk about solutions for access to high quality food for low-income neighborhoods and much more. Resources: Get the book “Grocery Story” Deconstructing Dinner website