Regenerative Skills

Trees as allies in regeneration: Panel episode

Part of the Climate Farmers Academy series, dedicated to facilitating peer-to-peer learning among farmers transitioning toward regenerative management across Europe. In this episode, experienced practitioners from various European regions share their insights and practical advice on integrating agroforestry into diverse farming contexts. The panel includes Lorenz from Germany, Dmitri based in Portugal, and Joshua from England, who discuss topics such as soil health, plant diversity, tree nursery setups, and the financial aspects of regenerative farming. This episode is a must-watch for anyone interested in enhancing farm resilience and implementing regenerative practices with perennial crop systems.

Understanding the regenerative potential of tourism, with Michelle Holiday

Today I’ll be kicking off another little series on a topic that’s new to this show, which is regenerative tourism. Both, I and a number of other friends have been noticing a growing animosity and backlash towards tourism in our communities over the last couple of years. It seems that since the rise of short term rentals, and the post COVID surge of travel, we’re hitting a tipping point in what local communities are willing to put up with as more of their culture and ways of life are over run by outside visitors and the industries that cater to them. Now obviously I’m a foreigner to the place where I live, as are many of my friends in different place around the world, so I want to understand this cultural moment from a number of perspectives. One being how people like myself can go beyond the empty promises of sustainable tourism, and visit new places in a way that actually enriches the culture and identity of those locations, and also the other side, where as host communities we can cultivate a relationship and cater to visitors in a way that incentivises this kind of interaction, and goes beyond the extractive tendencies from both sides. Now I’m very new to the nuisances of this topic, but thankfully my friend Charles Van de Kerkhof who has made this topic his specialty for a number of years has been kind enough to connect me to his contacts and guide the questions and concepts in the interviews of this growing series, and you’ll hear from him directly soon enough. Now this first interview will help to set the tone and offer an overview of what we’re trying to explore here, and I feel very fortunate to have gotten a hold of Michelle Holiday to start us off.
Michelle is an author, facilitator, consultant & researcher, who For the past 2 decades, has supported pioneering clients across a range of sectors, including tourism & agriculture, to enable the transition to more regenerative systems and structures. Michelle’s research & experience are brought together in her book, The Age of Thrivability: Vital Perspectives & Practices for a Better World, as well as more than 100 articles on themes of thrivability & regeneration.In this conversation, Michelle and I start by building an understanding of her term, thrivability as a concept that we set as a foundation for potential. We then look at the current paradigm of tourism and how it can erode both the value of the places that host visitors as well as cheapen the experiences that travelers are looking for. Through examples from our own travels and experiences Michelle and I look through examples of tourism interactions from different places and where opportunities may have been missed. We analyse both the perspective of travelers as well as hosts to build on a concept of thrivability for both, and Michelle shares case studies of where community led discussions have unlocked greater potential than what may lie on the surface. 
By the end you’ll hear about ideas and advice on how you, either as a visitor or a host, can break free of the common narrative of extractive tourism and begin to cultivate a relationship with the other that can enrich everyone involved, including the local environment.

Starting a project from scratch in extreme circumstances, with Jane Wegesa Fraser

Of all the projects that I've watched develop from the beginning, Jane is the example I most enjoy pointing to when people ask for advice on how to get their projects started with limited resources. Her determination, creativitiy, tenacity, and focus on community are blossoming into a real catalyst for change in her region of western Kenya. 

Natural farming for biodiversity first, with Joshua Sparkes

I’m really excited to share this conversation with all of you today, because Joshua Sparkes not only has a unique perspective on gardening and food production, he also speaks about these topics from a lot of experience and infectious passion. I’ve spoken to tons of farmers and gardeners on this show, and many of them are experts in permaculture, or market gardening, or native plants, or any other specialty, but in Josh’s case, he’s studied in many parts of the world and learned a range of disciplines that he combines in his own unique way to create a truly inspiring and evolving food production system at Birch farm in the UK, that actually doesn’t focus primarily on food growing at all. Before I let him explain that, let’s start at the beginning. Josh was fortunate to grow up in a wild part of Sussex surrounded by forests and meadows. When he finished school He joined the military and served overseas. He says his childhood was often a place he retreated too during hard times and it made him realise that his love came from nature, and so he’s dedicated the last 15 years to make sure he can do his best to support and protect it through his work, which was the beginning of his journey into Natural Farming. In this episode Josh will explain how attending a horticulture program opened doors to travel and learn from farmers and gardeners around the world and how that has shaped his vision for Birch farm. We explore how putting a main focus on increasing biodiversity has evolved into a wild configuration of plants in a small space which includes trees, and species that most consider weeds and pests as part of an integral system which aims to reach a balance through many multiple interconnections rather than eradication or suppression of certain life forms. Josh also explains how principles of natural farming and syntopic agriculture are married with the need to produce vegetables for a farm store and connected restaurant while also providing unique culinary and sensory experiences for customers. Of all the different food production systems that I’ve heard described on this show, I would say that the vision that Josh describes is the most aligned with my own for my own farm, just with much more knowledge and practical experience. 

Water management for farmers in a changing climate: Panel discussion

Welcome to another panel session. I love this format in general, but this panel in particular was a whole lot of fun, because not only did I have my close friends Nick Steiner and Megan Neary on, but I also joined in as a speaker to explore the topic of water management for farmers in a changing climate. 
 
The guiding question we explored was, How can farmers prepare for a changing climate and ensure long-term water resilience? We explored water retention, flood management, and drought resilience—breaking down strategies that help farms thrive despite increasing climate uncertainty.
We started by talking about the key changes farmers should expect in the coming decades and how to assess hydrological health on your farm. 
From there we went into practical steps to build a holistic water management strategy, and how to navigate the many options available for water retention. 
 
If you’ve been listening for any amount of time, you’ll know me and my friend Nick as we work closely together and have talked about water cycle restoration and our contracting jobs in creating water retention landscapes in many past episodes. Our good friend Megan Neary is new to this show though. She works with Elemental Ecosystems and the Water Stories team as a project technician. With a background in geology and conservation, Megan specializes in reshaping landscapes to improve soil health, enhance biodiversity, and create decentralized water systems.Now there is a whole Q&A session that I chopped for the podcast version, but if you’re interested you can find it on the Climate Farmer’s Youtube channel. 

The regenerative potential of transformative learning, with Pavel Cenkl

Today I want to start a fun new series on a topic that I’ve wanted to explore for quite a while, which is the concept of regenerative education.
I’ve worked as a teacher and educational facilitator in different capacities since the beginning of my career, first in before and after school programs for kids, then as an arts and environmental educator at summer camps, then English as a second language in both South Korea and Guatemala, and in between teaching various technical workshops in natural building, permaculture, ecosystem restoration, the transition journey to regenerative agriculture, and of course water management and water cycle restoration. Every time I engage in these activities I gain huge respect for teachers and the incredible skill and patience it takes to be an effective educational facilitator. Similarly, I want to continue to grow as a teacher and even improve my skills as a student since I’m also always in some sort of course or other at the same time.
I know this is a wide and nuanced topic and so to help me to become oriented to the considerations and scope of what I’m exploring, I reached out to Pavel Cenkl, who is the Academic Dean at Prescott College in Arizona (US) and the Founder of the Regenerative Learning Network. His work focuses on the intersection of transformative learning, community, and ecology and building a more regenerative, resilient, and equitable educational future. He’s also the author of several books including Transformative Learning (with Satish Kumar), “Relational Ecologies: Building Regenerative Community Learning Networks” in Regenerative Ecosystems in the Anthropocene (2023) and “Lessons from the Periphery” in Regenerative Learning (2022). Pavel’s current book in progress is titled Networked Learning: Transforming Higher Education through Distributed Learning.
This conversation weaves from the troubles with traditional or conventional educational models and why they leave so many behind, and increasingly in debt, through alternative models of teaching and the potential that educational institutions really have. We explore the role of technology in learning as well as the things the digital world can’t replace. Pavel also give his take on what makes effective educators and a window into their process of creating learning curriculums that are in line with the concept of regenerative education. This is the first in a series of interviews that I’m in the process of planning so if you have any ideas of what questions I should explore or who I should speak to in upcoming interviews, I encourage you to reach out to me through the Regenerative Skills Discord server. 

Steps to transition to regenerative communities, with Don Hall

After 8 years of interviewing people in the regeneration sector, It’s become clear to me that knowledge is not as valuable as experience. Gathering facts, concepts and theories is great up to a point, but until you put those ideas into practice, it’s impossible to know if those ideas clash with your reality, or require adaptation to what’s really going on on the ground. For this reason I was excited to see that Don Hall, who has worked with the transition towns movement in various capacities for 16 years now, has come out with a new book titled, The Regeneration Handbook: Transform Yourself to Transform the World. Don also holds a Master’s in Environmental Leadership from Naropa University, a certification in Permaculture Design from the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute and is currently the Training Coordinator for Transition Network. You can find accounts of much of his work and learnings at his website and blog at evolutionary change.orgIn this episode a lot of what we explore revolves around the International Transition Network, how it started, and how it's grown to a movement since the early 2000s. We go into Don’s practical experience building the transition movement in both Colorado and Florida, some of the shared priorities of those communities that formed the basis of initiatives and unity that was formed, and how others can participate in creating these kinds of programs in their own communities. We also get into related topics like how transition is as much an internal process as an external community one, and the skills that Don believes we need to relearn in order to live in close knit communities the way that almost everyone used to in recent history.

The cutting edge of soil science and agronomy, with Harriet Mella and James White

Welcome everyone to the first episode of season 9. The beginning of the 9th year of making this show. I’ve got a lot of exciting new projects and collaborations coming up that I’ll be bringing you along for including some ambitious water restoration projects, educational trainings for regen ag transition in Europe, and  quite a few mini series on new topics and perspectives on regeneration that I’ll be co creating with some friends and members of this podcast’s Discord server
But before I get into all of that, I want to start this season off with an exploration of the cutting edge of soil science and agronomy, and as part of the monthly panel discussion series, that’s exactly what we focused on in a live interview. Uncover the newest developments and cutting edge of scientific discovery in agronomy and soil research. We'll explore this unfolding frontier with two of the scientists and researchers who are pushing the boundaries of their fields bringing new possibilities for regenerative farmers to manage their land and businesses for greater ecological health. We're joined in this panel by Harriet Mela: Independent researcher and soil biologist from Austria James White: Soil microbiologist and professor at Rutgers University in the United States

Exciting things to come in 2025: The New Years Special

Hello and welcome back to a special New Year episode. Unlike the normal interview format today I want to take some time to reflect on the past year, answer some very tough and thought provoking questions from the Discord community, and explain my vision and planned projects for the year to come, or at least the ones I can foresee from this early vantage point. 
It’s always surprising to me how this little passion side project of a podcast has stayed relevant in my life and grown to reach so many people around the world. It started in February of 2017 while I was an apprentice to my friend and mentor Charlie Rendal the remarkable bamboo and natural material builder in San Marcos La Laguna in Lake Atitlan Guatemala, and since then has both followed and propelled my learning journey and career going on 9 years now. I’m so grateful to all of you, both contributors and listeners, who have supported and participated in this project for all of these years. Because of your encouragement and efforts I’ve achieved so many ambitions and dreams that could never have come true on my own. I genuinely hope that wherever you are and whatever holidays you celebrate, that you’ve had a relaxing and enriching last couple weeks with the people you love. With that said, let’s get into the topics to kick off the year of 2025. 

The challenges and opportunities of diverse farm enterprises with Ariane Lotti, Maria Giménez, and Francisco Alves

I’m excited to announce that we've restarted the panel format. Many of you will remember that I used to put together monthly panels with experts on popular topics. The truth is that they can be tough to coordinate and take a lot more planning than regular interview episodes so I let them go while I focused on other projects, but thanks to help from some digital tools and popular requests from listeners, we’re working to bring these episodes back on a monthly basis. So if you haven’t heard previous panel episodes, I’ll give you a quick recap. As part of my role building the Regen ag community in Europe with Climate Farmers, I’m always trying to facilitate access to good information from experienced practitioners in regenerative agriculture. Oftentimes I look to organize these panels around the common questions that come up in our community chats. In other cases I see a lack of clear and concise information around a topic of interest. Other times I hear people referencing the work of other practitioners around the world for opportunities and inspiration and I try to connect them with each other in the Q&A sessions.
Another motivation for organizing these is to increase awareness of the practicalities that are behind the aspiration to great achievements in land management. I hope that all of you out there listening to these episodes leave after having heard these episodes feeling that the incredible accomplishments and projects of the people we highlight are achievable and replicable and that you can do things like this too. You may not personally identify with their particular contexts or want to mimic them or their work exactly, but I hope you might find a point of connection in their stories and their journeys. Every project starts as an idea or a dream or a feeling that is nurtured into its potential by the people and communities that have skin in the game and dedicate their time and efforts to co-create that potential. With that said I want to introduce the panel and our speakers for this episode. So today we’ll be exploring the challenges and opportunities in mixed enterprise farming. By that I mean farms that sell and range of products, especially of different food categories such as cereals and cattle, or market garden and laying hens and agrotourism and farm tours. I was really lucky to get three farmers together from very different regions who are pioneering diverse enterprise farming on their land. Now it’s not usually the case that the farmers I get to speak with are people I’ve met in person or farms that I’ve physically visited, but in this case I’ve been to and even ran some events and projects with each of the farmers who I’m speaking with.Maria Gimenez comes to us from Wilmers Gaerten just south of Berlin Germany. Francisco Alves comes from Herdade de Sao Luis, Porcus Natura in Alentejo Portugal, and Ariane Lotti joins us from Tenuta San Carlo near the Tuscan coast in Italy. They each give much better intros of themselves and their farms than I can so I’ll let them do that, but before we jump into the panel, you should know that there’s a video version of this panel that includes the Q&A session in this last half hour which I am clipping off here for the podcast version. You can find that on the Climate Farmers YT chanel and if you happen to be an active farmer anywhere in Europe, you can also join the Climate Farmers community for free and participate in the farmer to farmers learning platform that we’ve built by going to Climate Farmers.org The community is part of a non-profit dedicated to assisting farmers at all levels of their transition to regenerative management.