The Regenerative Mindset: A Personal Essay
This article is for anyone called to heal.
Take a moment to reflect on your current surroundings. What is the state of ecosystem complexity around you? Do you see biodiversity, uniformity or absence? How are you interacting with your environment?
As individuals and a collective, we are uniquely positioned to influence our environment more than any known species on Earth. The daily choices we make, mundane and monumental, directly affect our perception and expression of reality. Are your actions life-supporting or life-repressing?
Reflecting on the current predominant approach to food (vegetable and meat)production reveals a realm of life-repression steeped in terminology that elicits negative emotions, such as noxious and invasive. This industrial agricultural system took hold after World War II and relies heavily on using synthetic inputs and chemical agents for control. Now, with over 75 years of practice, we can evaluate the impact of this approach.
With topsoil eroding into the ocean, toxic levels of fertilizer polluting water sources, variability in seasonal temperatures, precipitation extremes and loss of critical habitat for wildlife — all of which can be related to agricultural operations needing more viable land and the resulting increase in population from the surplus of food — the question then becomes, are these “side-effects” worth the outcome?
There is a growing consensus the answer is not anymore. “Sustainable” is a trendy phrase toted around as the answer to modern food cultivation. But, let’s look at what this word implies; sustaining is generally accepted as the ability to maintain action over time. The outcome of sustainable agriculture, then, translates to ensuring our contemporary food production functions as is for the foreseeable future, a plan in the right direction. However, this is akin to taking an injured person and stabilizing the crisis but not providing rehabilitation to recover beyond the debilitated state. Our focus must be to rehabilitate and foster the regeneration of the land, water and other natural cycles.
Nice words, but what does that mean? Because our goal is to heal nature, let us look to nature for insight and inspiration. Fortunately, you do not have to take this monumental task on yourself. Many people have already started this journey of regenerating our shared world.
To begin our adventure into the regenerative world, let’s start in the agricultural industry. Two champions in the regenerative agriculture movement are Nicole Masters and John Kempf. Masters is an internationally-celebrated agroecologist. Her initiation into the regenerative effort came through her love of nature and a significant health crisis. She works all over the globe assisting land managers in transitioning their operations into life-promoting, humane and profitable businesses. Kempf is a practicing agronomist who specializes in helping producers, ranchers and consumers ask how nutrition impacts the quality of the harvest and our subsequent health. His approach to growing nutrient-dense, vibrant food to foster vitality and use food as medicine is a mindset that many farmers and ranchers, specifically in the North Fork Valley, are also embodying in themselves. There are many more practitioners to discover, so explore and find who resonates with you to learn more.
Regeneration is not siloed to the agricultural sector; it is a lens to view the world. Regeneration is a methodology of nurturing life forces that implies recognition of and engagement with the inescapable connection to everything and everyone else. We must also embody this way of life to generate the most significant influence.
Demonstrating this concept are several beautiful books, each with a different perspective. Although, a running motif throughout is the concept of observance, integration and gratitude.
Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality, by holistic psychiatrist David Kopacz and Joseph Rael, a wisdom keeper of Southern Ute and Picuris Pueblo heritage, marries Western science and Indigenous teachings to kindle the call of being an agent of healing within your circle of influence.
Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture, A New Earth, by professor and sheepherder Charles Massy, demonstrates the power of the regenerative approach to resource management and stewarding healthy ecosystems.
The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals ofRenewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, by psychotherapist Francis Weller, acknowledges the losses we each have experienced and provides the tools to use sorrow and grief as a foundation to live more fully. A potentially strange book to recommend, but regeneration requires the acceptance of loss; otherwise, there would be no need to regenerate. The difficulty is knowing how to engage positively with one of the most difficult emotional experiences; this book is an excellent guide.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by botanist of the Potawatomi heritage Robin Wall Kimmerer, is a book of personal transformation and knowledge sharing. She masterfully tells readers a story of how two radically different perspectives of life can not only become intertwined to strengthen each other but transform into something more significant than the separate parts.
Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy, by weaver and natural dyer Rebecca Burgess and environmental activist Courtney White, demonstrates how the regenerative mindset can positively impact other facets of life and society. This book provides insight and inspiration for different ways to nurture life and health.
In light of the ubiquitous presence of chaos, we are in a prime position to help shape the world we wish to experience. There is no single path, and it will absolutely be difficult and trying, but for those called to heal and persevere, the ripple effect you will create is infinite.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandh
The author’s flock of wool sheep (Navajo-Churro and Blue-Faced Leicester x East Friesian) about to be shorn by the author and his friend/fellow sheep herder, Benjamin Capron, for their local Fiber shed. Photo by Matt Eland.
Originally published in the Summer 2023 issue of Spoke+Blossom.