Regenerative Skills

Greame Sait Connects The Dots From Soil To Human Health: Part 2

I’ve been working on a very special project with Climate Farmers for the last few months and I’m proud to say we’re finally ready to announce our new Pioneer Program for farmers in Europe. For this round we’ve partnered with a long time hero of mine, Darren Doherty and his Regrarian’s platform, to bring the most complete regenerative farm training program together with our unique Carbon+ credits for transition finance assistance. 
The Regrarian’s online program is built around their expanded scale of permanence through which you’ll learn essential elements of Holistic Management, Keyline Design, farm infrastructure development, soil health, business and finances, and so much more. All of this will be accompanied by access to some of the biggest names in regenerative agriculture around the world through our Skill Exchange calls, Expert Panel Discussions, and a chance to get dedicated attention from some of the best ag consultants in your region, as well as guidance through the application process to the Carbon+ credits. Along the way I’ll be leading weekly coaching calls for the whole group, and you’ll be able to interact and ask questions to your peers and the whole regrarians network with access to their Workplace community. All of this amounts to the most thorough and robust program to guide you on your journey to profitable regenerative farming. Whether this is your first introduction into agriculture, or you’re a seasoned veteran who's been growing for decades, whether you’re only planning a small farm or you’re managing thousands of hectares, you’ll find everything here that you need to make the journey as smoothly and confidently as possible. 
Applications will only be reviewed until the 5th of November and there is a limit to how many people we can accept into the program, so don’t hesitate. Even if you’re not farming right now I’ll bet you know someone who could benefit immensely from this kind of guidance and training. For more information on how to apply to become a Pioneer farmer you can follow the link in the show notes or go directly to ClimateFarmers.orgIf you're not farming in Europe but still want to be involved with the Regrarian's program and work with me over the next few months, you can sign up through this link here.  
Welcome back everyone. Today we’ll be picking up where we left off last week in our three part series with Greame Sait. For a long time I’ve been working to connect the pieces between ecological health, regenerative methods of farming, and the health of the human body. Though many of you will find the connection between those three elements very intuitive, I’ve worked to find experts and practitioners who’ve illuminated some essential pieces of that puzzle. Up until now most of the discussions on this show have focused on just one of those elements at a time, but today we’ll continue with the second of the three part series with Graeme Sait who has made it his life’s work to marry these disciplines and train farmers, health care professionals, and ecologists around the world in the importance of caring for our bodies and our ecologies as a single organism that requires all of the pieces to be in place for optimal function. 
If you didn’t have the chance to hear the first part, I highly recommend it to give context to this episode, and I’ve linked to it in the show notes. For a quick recap, Graeme Sait is the internationally acclaimed author and educator who co-founded Nutri-Tech Solutions (NTS) and Nutrition Matters as well as hosting the Nutrition Farming Podcast . He has written hundreds of published articles and the popular book "Nutrition Rules!". Graeme has formulated many of the soil health and human health products for which NTS are renowned and he has developed all of the nutrition programs that are the keystones of their proactive management approach. Greame also owns Nutrition Farm which comprises two distinctly different properties dedicated to the production of nut...

Greame Sait connects the dots from soil to human health: Part 1

I’ve been working on a very special project with Climate Farmers for the last few months and I’m proud to say we’re finally ready to announce our new Pioneer Program for farmers in Europe. For this round we’ve partnered with a long time hero of mine, Darren Doherty and his Regrarian’s platform, to bring the most complete regenerative farm training program together with our unique Carbon+ credits for transition finance assistance. 
The Regrarian’s online program is built around their expanded scale of permanence through which you’ll learn essential elements of Holistic Management, Keyline Design, farm infrastructure development, soil health, business and finances, and so much more. All of this will be accompanied by access to some of the biggest names in regenerative agriculture around the world through our Skill Exchange calls, Expert Panel Discussions, and a chance to get dedicated attention from some of the best ag consultants in your region, as well as guidance through the application process to the Carbon+ credits. Along the way I’ll be leading weekly coaching calls for the whole group, and you’ll be able to interact and ask questions to your peers and the whole regrarians network with access to their Workplace community. All of this amounts to the most thorough and robust program to guide you on your journey to profitable regenerative farming. Whether this is your first introduction into agriculture, or you’re a seasoned veteran who's been growing for decades, whether you’re only planning a small farm or you’re managing thousands of hectares, you’ll find everything here that you need to make the journey as smoothly and confidently as possible. 
Applications will only be reviewed until the 5th of November and there is a limit to how many people we can accept into the program, so don’t hesitate. Even if you’re not farming right now I’ll bet you know someone who could benefit immensely from this kind of guidance and training. For more information on how to apply to become a Pioneer farmer you can follow the link in the show notes or go directly to ClimateFarmers.orgIf you're not farming in Europe but still want to be involved with the Regrarian's program and work with me over the next few months, you can sign up through this link here.  
Today is going to be the start of a unique journey with a very special guest. For a long time I’ve been working to connect the pieces between ecological health, regenerative methods of farming, and the health of the human body.
Though many of you will find the connection between those three elements very intuitive, I’ve worked to find experts and practitioners who’ve illuminated some essential pieces of that puzzle. Up until now most of the discussions on this show have focused on just one of those elements at a time, but today we’ll begin with the first episode of a three part series with Graeme Sait who has made it his life’s work to marry these disciplines and train farmers, health care professionals, and ecologists around the world in the importance of caring for our bodies and our ecologies as a single organism that requires all of the pieces to be in place for optimal function. 
Graeme Sait is the internationally acclaimed author and educator who co-founded Nutri-Tech Solutions (NTS) and Nutrition Matters as well as hosting the Nutrition Farming Podcast . He has written hundreds of published articles and the popular book "Nutrition Rules!". Graeme has formulated many of the soil health and human health products for which NTS are renowned and he has developed all of the nutrition programs that are the keystones of their proactive management approach. Greame also owns Nutrition Farm which comprises two distinctly different properties dedicated to the production of nutrient-dense, chemical-free food with forgotten flavors and enhanced medicinal qualities.
One of these farms is based in a sub tropical zone on the Sunshine coast in Queensland,

Charles Dowding teaches the essentials for a productive no-dig veggie garden

Welcome back to another interview from the skill exchange calls that I’ve been running with Climate Farmers for our regenerative farming network in Europe. 
This is one of the many community building activities that I’ve been organising to help to connect farmers around Europe to some of the best emerging information available, and to get their most important questions answered from our experts around the world. 
In this session I had the chance to speak with Charles Dowding in Somerset in England. Many of you may already know Charles as an innovative gardener and author of nine books on caring for soil as well as productive ways to grow food with less weeding through no-dig management. At Homeacres, his small, intensive market garden Charles teaches, runs experiments and above all produces delicious food. Based on his experience of growing vegetables without tillage for 35 years he shows people from all walks of life how to grow more easily, enjoyably and in a time-efficient way. 
Before we get started I want to remind all of you who would be interested in attending one of these skill exchange calls live in the future, all you have to do is be a registered farmer in Europe to receive the invitations and call links that we have coming up. I’m planning the next session with Nigel Palmer, author of the book “The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments” later this month, so don’t wait too long. You can register now at climatefarmers.org
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://charlesdowding.co.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg
https://www.instagram.com/charles_dowding/?hl=en
https://charlesdowding.co.uk/courses/
Check out pervious episodes on No-dig gardening
https://regenerativeskills.com/abundantedge-the-definitive-guide-to-no-till-organic-farming-with-andrew-mefferd-author-of-the-organic-no-till-farming-revolution-105/
https://regenerativeskills.com/abundantedge-the-definitive-guide-to-no-till-organic-farming-part-2-with-andrew-mefferd-author-of-the-organic-no-till-farming-revolution-105/

Ray Archuleta, Ademir Calegari, and Ben Taylor-Davies discuss regenerative arable farming

Welcome to the 9th 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 regenerative arable farming with my friends and colleagues at Climate Farmers, a non-profit organization working to build the infrastructure to scale regenerative agriculture in Europe.In this panel I invited three of the most experienced and influential educators in the field of arable farming from the USA, Brazil, and England.
Arable farming is often the first agricultural practice that comes under fire with criticisms about industrial ag, the troubles of monocropping, tillage, chemical use, and many of the other management methods that need to be abandoned are most closely associated with large scale grain and legume production. Yet cultivation of annual crops, especially grains, are some of the oldest cultivars from the dawn of agriculture itself. Though it’s still common practice to destroy the ecology of a piece of land to produce these products, there’s still potential to regenerate that ecology if we can move beyond the paradigm of recent decades and learn from natural biological processes.
Don’t forget that if you want to hear the full, unedited version of this interview with the entire Q&A session at the end, be sure to check out the different subscription options on the Regenerative Skills Patreon page.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.
Links:
https://soilhealthacademy.org/
https://groundswellag.com/speakers/ademir-calegari/
https://www.regenben.com/
https://treeyopermacultureedu.com/chapter-6-trees/alley-cropping-and-silvopasture/
https://www.agroforestry.org/the-overstory/337-overstory-261-alley-cropping
https://regenerativeskills.com/eric-toensmeier-outlines-the-roadmap-to-implementing-the-carbon-farming-solution/

Eric Toensmeier outlines the roadmap to implementing a carbon farming solution

Today’s episode has been a long time coming for me. I’ve followed Eric Toensmeier’s work since I first started learning about permaculture and I found his first book “Paradise Lot” about his work in transforming a tiny suburban dirt patch into a perennial food oasis at his home in Massachusetts. 
Since then Eric has written many other titles that have kept an eerie pace with my own work and focus over the years. “Perennial Vegetables” was great fodder for my learning in Guatemala with indigenous plant cultures and companion plants to coffee and avocado. The Carbon Farming Solution” helped to turn my attention to the potential of regenerative agriculture at scale, and his contributions to “Project Drawdown” helped me to put agriculture in perspective with the rest of the essential steps to addressing the climate crisis around the world. 
In this session, because of its relevance to the work I’m doing with Climate Farmers, I decided to focus on the conclusion of “The Carbon Farming Solution” Part 5, which outlines the implementation of regenerative, perennially based, agriculture. We’ll explore Eric’s three point plan for scaling up carbon farming, his ideas for ways to support farmers and organizations in the transition, effective financing, removing policy barriers, as well as strategic next steps. We also cover some of his work with Project Drawdown in looking at the global picture and where regenerative agriculture stacks up in the priority list they’ve created to reverse the effects of climate change. 
There’s so much more I could say in an introduction to Eric and his work, but instead I’ll put all the links to learn more about him and the projects he’s involved with in the show notes for this episode and I’ll jump right into the first question to start this discussion off.
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:
http://www.perennialsolutions.org/
http://carbonfarmingsolution.com/
https://www.drawdown.org/

Anthony Arvanitakis on cultivating a holistically healthy lifestyle

Welcome back everyone. Today I’m going to explore a topic that has been important to me for a very long time, but that hasn’t been explored much on this show so far. I’m talking about personal health and fitness. 
Now of course this is a very multifaceted subject, and everyone will have their own ideas of what diets, exercise plans, mobility routines, as well as mental and spiritual practices are essential, and that’s great. This interview is going to focus on physical fitness and what it means to integrate exercise and strength training into a holistic health plan that suits your own unique needs and goals. 
Those of you who’ve been following this podcast since it was called Abundant Edge will likely remember me talking about my own struggles with digestive health and how I’ve had trouble for most of my adult life due to gut dysbiosis and related symptoms. In the past when I’ve felt hopeless and that my nutritional health was beyond my control, I would focus on the areas that I could still influence. 
Since I was constantly traveling for most of the last 15 years, I focused on calisthenics and bodyweight exercises that I didn’t need any equipment for. As I began researching how to train my body without gym equipment or weights I quickly found the inspirational work of Anthony Arvantakis, the founder of Bodyweight Muscle and the author of many bodyweight training books. I was immediately drawn to his focus on whole body fitness and functional strength above aesthetics, and his own personal journey of transformation is truly heartwarming. 
Over the years Anthony’s exercise programs and online community have helped me to get out of various depressive funks which have had transformative effects on my life beyond just my physical fitness. The routines have helped me to manage my time better, gain motivation for other goals in my life, and focus on holistic fitness. These qualities, while not unique to any one health program, have served as the spark to recommit myself to many of the virtues that I hope to continue to improve upon and one day even exemplify. Together they all tie into a much more complete and robust concept of holistic health as a lifestyle rather than an end goal. 
In this interview Anthony shares his story of the accident that had him bed ridden and immoble for years, and the mind and body transformation that helped him regain control of his life. We talk about the mindset and discipline necessary for a holistically healthy life, and how to look beyond your physical fitness to strive for optimal health in many aspects. 
I’m hoping that this will be the first of many conversations on these topics and I welcome you to suggest other experts and perspectives for future interviews on the discord channel, but for now, I’m pleased to get this discussion started with Anthony.
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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdnGq7_Y2r8&t=2797s
https://www.bodyweightmuscle.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bodyweightmuscle/
https://www.youtube.com/c/BodyweightMuscle

Harriet Mella demystifies cutting edge soil science for ideal plant health

Welcome back to another interview from the skill exchange calls that I’ve been running with Climate Farmers for our regenerative farming network in Europe. 
This is one of the many community building activities that I’ve been organising to help to connect farmers around Europe to some of the best emerging information available, and to get their most important questions answered from around the world. 
In this session I had the pleasure of speaking with Harriet Mella, an independent research scientist from Austria known for her work uncovering the unexplained phenomena of plant growth and development. Informed by her background in microbiology, mycology, and biochemistry, Harriet has a unique capacity to describe little-known connections between emerging biological research and agriculture. Her objective is to use the scientific background that we have to introduce agricultural methods that are more resilient and low input for farmers.In this exchange call we take a look at a wide variety of topics surrounding plant health through soil biology. Harriet does a great job of summarising very complex aspects of cutting edge research into practical applications for work on the ground. 
At the moment, she’s probably best known for the Carbon Micro Cycling course that she teaches on the Agriculture community platform Kind Harvest. She has worked a lot with John Kempf from Advancing Ecological Agriculture and refers to him a few times during this interview. 
Before we get started I want to remind all of you who would be interested in attending one of these skill exchange calls live in the future, all you have to do is be a registered farmer in Europe to receive the invitations and call links that we have coming up. I’m planning a session with Charles Dowding about No-Dig market gardening at the beginning of October, so don’t wait too long. You can register now at climatefarmers.org
Links:
Harriet Mella on Linkedin
https://kindharvest.ag/courses/ra-cc-carbon-course/
climatefarmers.org

How to make and analyse high quality compost: Expert panel 8

Welcome to the 8th 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 how to make and analyse high quality compost with my friends and colleagues at Climate Farmers, a non-profit organization working to advance regenerative agriculture in Europe. In this panel I invited three of the most experienced and influential educators in the field of compost production and biological soil amendments.
This is an area where there is still a lot of contention as you’ll see in any online forum on the topic. Differences in opinion about bacterial or fungal dominant compost, hot thermophilic decomposition or cooler and slower techniques. Whether compost teas actually work or if prebiotic food is more important. This is a new and emerging field so there are new discoveries all the time, but rather than get bogged down in technicalities I organised this panel to cut through the confusion and talk about what really works and results in improvement of soil health for growers.
Now one mistake that I have to own up to is that I screwed up a bit on the scheduling coordination with the speakers, and for that reason Charles Dowding and Adreinne Goldshalx didn’t show up until the end. We’ll get to hear a little bit from Charles in the last 15 minutes, but Adrienne only comes in during the Q&A portion which isn’t part of this episode.
Don’t worry though, I have plans to do follow up interviews with them both so we’ll hear from them in some of the episodes coming up. Luckily Troy Hinke of Living Roots Compost Tea was a real hero and carried the discussion and all the questions I had all the way through.
Don’t forget that if you want to see the video of the full event, you can check it out on the Climate Farmer’s Youtube channel through the link in the show notes for this episode. 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.
Links
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9BQ2a952wEchjyRSZPV6-Q
https://www.livingrootscomposttea.com/
https://www.instagram.com/livingrootscomposttea/?hl=en
https://charlesdowding.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/charles_dowding/?hl=en
Check out these previous episodes on soil health
https://regenerativeskills.com/gabe-brown-on-how-to-restore-soil-and-ecological-health-on-a-massive-scale/
https://regenerativeskills.com/regenerating-the-biology-in-your-soil-expert-panel-4/
https://regenerativeskills.com/robert-pavlis-soil/
https://regenerativeskills.com/matt-powers-regen-soil/

Stefan Sobkowiak on running a profitable regenerative fruit orchard

Welcome back to another interview from the skill exchange calls that I’ve been running with Climate Farmers for our regenerative farming network in Europe. 
In this session I had the good fortune of introducing Stefan Sobkowiak to our group. Many of you who’ve been listening to this show for a while will remember the last interview I did with Stefan in the last season during the series on agroforestry. Stefan is one of my favorite sources for practical and honest techniques for managing the whole ecology of an orchard from propagating new tree species through maintenance, pest management, harvesting and even processing and marketing your products. His film, the Permaculture Orchard has help people around the world to transition towards diversified, resilient, and more profitable models of running their tree crop businesses. His YouTube channel goes even more in depth as he’s always creating videos about the innovations and even struggles that are going on at his orchard Miracle Farm in Canada.  
In this session we cover a lot of ground in a short time.We talk about How to manage pests and diseases by improving soil health and biodiversity in the orchard. How to care for the health of your trees for better yields and profit. Integrating other crops and animals into the system for ecological and economic resilience. And how to adapt common methods to your unique climate and context. 
There’s a whole Q&A session that happens after the half hour interview on these skill exchange calls which are exclusive to the Climate Farming network here in Europe. So if you’re interested in attending these calls in person to have your own questions answered by the experts and tap into the growing community of farmers, consultants, and educators around Europe, you can register right now at ClimateFarmers.org
Come and learn Syntropic agriculture and profitable agroforestry with me in Spain!
This is the first announcement that I’m making for an exciting course that I’ve put together with my friend and Syntropic agriculture specialist Jacob Evans. I interviewed Jacob last season about his experience applying syntropic principles and design to the challenging ecology of Andalucia in southern Spain, and how even with the harsh heat and bone dry conditions that they face there he was able to establish an eden of productive perennial crops and support species on degraded former farmland. 
Since that interview Jacob and I have been looking for ways to collaborate and so I invited him to come and teach with me at the farm of our good friends and Climate Farmers, Carlo and Coralie. The two of them have been developing their new orchard a few hours south of me in Barcelona and are super excited to experiment with Syntropic agriculture for all the incredible benefits of mixed biodiversity and ecosystem services that it has the potential to develop. Together we’ll be hosting a group of learners for 5 days in which we’ll not only go through the principles and theory of how these systems work, we’ll be putting it into practice directly on the land as we install syntropic orchard rows on their site. I’ll also be going into the practical side of ensuring that this innovative way of planting matures into a profitable venture that can accelerate the development of your farm. We’ll cover soil testing and plant health, seed saving and plant propagation, alley cropping and animal integration, and a lot more. There will be team building activities, incredible food from the surrounding community, and much more in this 5 day intensive learning experience. So whether you’re excited to develop a large farm with agroforestry, or just see the opportunity to plant delicious fruit trees in your back yard or neighborhood, you’ll leave this course feeling confident to go out and start planting no matter what climate or bioregion you live in. 
You can find all the details of the workshop at thegreenrebel.org or find them on instagram at thegreenrebel.

Will Harriss of White Oak Pastures on the bigger picture of a regenerative farm business

Over the last handful of weeks I’ve had the pleasure of managing an ambitious new project in my role with Climate Farmers, an organization working to build the infrastructure to scale regenerative agriculture in Europe. We call it the Pioneer Program. What this is essentially is a collaborative effort between us and some of the most prominent and experienced educators in regenerative agriculture. In this first program we partnered with Richard Perkins of Ridgedale Permaculture in Sweden and his online masterclass to guide farmers from all around Europe to redesign and transition their farms and businesses towards regenerative models. Through the incredible education provided in Richard’s course and guided facilitation from our team and other knowledgeable practitioners around the world, we’ve helped our group to develop their holistic context, analyse new enterprise options, and map a course for a regenerative future for their land. In a short time we’ve seen dramatic transformations and progress in both the farm ecology and the mindsets of our program participants. 
During this journey I had the pleasure of interviewing Will Harriss of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia and guiding a Q&A session with our Pioneer farmers. 
Since Will does a great job of giving his own introduction early in this interview I’ll cut this preface short and jump right in. Don’t forget to stick around till the end where I’ll tell you how you can join the next Pioneer Program with Climate Farmers and now I’ll hand things over to Will Harriss.
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
https://whiteoakpastures.com/
https://www.instagram.com/whiteoakpastures/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-6RVpGF4tM
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTmheMIkvmt2T2k62oo-Yfw
https://youtu.be/nnYR7onhwc4