Regenerative Skills

Leilani Yats on the nuances and aspirations of regenerative travel

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. 
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Links:
Website: www.NaturallySmart.meFacebook: https://facebook.com/naturallysmarttravelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/naturallysmarttravel/Video: https://vimeo.com/566235203

Gabe Brown on how to restore soil and ecological health on a massive scale

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. 
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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.

Sven Kallen on How to restore the dry and degraded lands of Europe

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.  
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Links:
https://landlifecompany.com/news/better-faster-stronger-the-new-cocoon-lid/
https://volterra.bio/
https://lifeterra.eu/

Farm economics with Mark Shepard and Michael Ableman: Expert panel 5

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/

Zach Loeks on how to inegrate perennial plants in a market garden: Skill building call 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

Closing the loop on gourmet mushroom production

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. 
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Links:
https://mycelio.eu/
https://www.instagram.com/myceliorganic/

Richard Perkins helps troubleshoot your market garden

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 
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Links:
https://www.ridgedalepermaculture.com/

Regenerating the biology in your soil: expert panel 4

Welcome to the fourth of the monthly expert panel discussions. As I mentioned in the past, 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. If you’re a subscribing patreon member, you’ll also be invited to the live events and the open Q&A for listeners after the panel.In this session, I hosted a discussion on regenerating agricultural soil 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 educators on the subject of soil science together to talk about how to build fertility and holistic health in agricultural soils. Since these discussions are longer than the regular weekly episodes, I’ll keep the introduction short and jump right into the introductions for our two panelists
John Kempf has taken on the bold mission of having regenerative models of agriculture management become the mainstream globally by 2040.In addition to being a former grower himself, John is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, Crop Health Labs, Ozadia, and the Regenerative Agriculture Academy. He also hosts the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, where he interviews top growers and scientists about the principles and practice of implementing regenerative agriculture on a large scale.
Dr. Ingham discovered the soil food web nearly 4 decades ago and has been pioneering research ever since. Widely recognised as the world’s foremost soil biologist, she’s passionate about empowering ordinary people to bring the soils in their community back to life.Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web Approach has been used to successfully restore the ecological functions of soils on six continents. She has helped to make soil health knowledge available to people with no relevant experience – making it accessible to individuals who wish to retrain and to begin a meaningful and impactful career in an area that will help to secure the survival of humans and other species.
So let’s jump right in!
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Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
https://johnkempf.com/
https://www.advancingecoag.com/
https://www.soilfoodweb.com/

How to tell better stories

I remember distinctly the time that a storyteller came to my middle school when I was in 7th grade. At that point my school experience, like for many others, consisted of being talked to all day by someone at the front of the class while I struggled to pay attention and not fidget.
But this was different. This woman’s story and the way she told it managed to hold an auditorium full of 12 and 13 year olds in silent attention hanging on her every word. I remember how she raised and lowered her voice to build tension. How she would quicken or slow her speech to convey energy and pace, and use emotion to transport us into the viewpoint of the characters and feel what they were feeling. I was truly impressed.
Since then I’ve loved storytelling, especially live stories, and envy those people who’ve mastered their way of speaking to elicit real emotion and connection with an audience or even just in individual conversation. And that’s why, today I'll be exploring the importance of storytelling in our modern lives with one of my personal favorite authorities on the subject, Shannon Leahy is the cofounder of lighthouse storytelling and works with individuals and organizations to effectively communicate their stories through better writing and speaking. She told me right away just how far back storytelling has played a big part in her life and why it was so important from a young age.
Before we go in deeper about techniques and strategies for better storytelling, lets establish a baseline of where we’re at as a storytelling culture, because digital and social media have changed the ways we tell stories through their various platforms.
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Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
https://www.lighthousestorytelling.com/
Want to hear more episodes like this one?
https://regenerativeskills.com/how-to-ask-better-questions/
https://regenerativeskills.com/abundantedge-loxley-and-rhapsody-of-the-story-connective/
https://regenerativeskills.com/abundantedge-bill-reed/

Invest, Curate, Mend: A manifesto for our clothing

If you don’t know her from her books, Fibershed and Harvesting Color you’ll likely remember Rebecca Burgess from the panel discussion two weeks ago that I hosted with the team at Climate Farmers in which she and Aroa Alvarez Fernandez spoke about the potential of regenerative fashion and textiles to transform the current clothing industry. After that discussion I felt compelled to speak to her again to explore some of the options that are available to everyone to rediscover the value in our wardrobes and care for our clothing as investments. 
This is no minor change. The fashion industry around the world is now second only to the oil industry as the largest polluter on Earth. This affects everyone and is tied to many aspects of our lives, from growing fibers, to processing fabrics and dying them, to the millions of people who work in the industry from farming to retail. It’s responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions due to its long supply chains and energy intensive production, but even more severe is the industry’s impact on our water supplies. For example 85 % of the daily needs in water of the entire population of India would be covered by the water used just to grow cotton in the country, and yet it’s estimated that 100 million people there do not have secure access to drinking water. In most of the countries in which garments are produced, untreated toxic wastewaters from textiles factories are dumped directly into the rivers. The contamination eventually reaches the sea and then spreads around the globe.
But while the destruction of the clothing industry is staggering, there are a lot of simple things that all of us can change in our consumption and care habits to do our part to fix this. Since this is certainly not my own area of expertise, I asked Rebecca what her own hierarchy of clothing purchases are and how she decides what garments to invest in. 
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Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
https://fibershed.org/
carboncycle.org
https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/fibershed/
colorhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52510936-fibershed?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=9GnJJbKvzv&rank=1