Podcast – Page 20 – Regenerative Skills

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5 Ways to shortcut the “year of observation”

You’ll hear it repeated a lot in permaculture circles that the best thing to do before even starting the design for your site is to spend a full year living on the land. In that time you’ll be able to observe and gather information about how things change and transform during the different season and you’ll gain insights that you’d never be able to without this “year of observation.” I agree that it would be great if you were able to do this, but I live in the real world where no-one has a year of time before they can […]

Regenerative Agriculture for a better world

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Farming

Creating the tools, resources, and community for a regenerative future in farming, with Ray Milidoni of Farming Secrets

Though regenerative agriculture has made huge leaps forward in the last decade, it still only accounts for a very small percentage of the farms around the world and even less in over developed countries. While we still have a long way to go make ecological land management practices the norm around the world, there are a lot of people dedicated to accelerating the progress of recent years by creating educational platforms, mentorship programs and creating community collaboration around these important skills. In this episode I got to speak to one of my favorite new contacts in regenerative farming education, Ray […]

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Permaculture

How to create a free topographic map for your regenerative design

One of the most important elements of a regenerative design for a section of land is to understand the contours and shape of the site. With this information you can better understand how water will move on the land, and begin to plan where to put features like water harvesting structures, swales on contour, plantings on contour, check dams, ponds and much more. But it can be tricky for beginners to learn new software for digital mapping or it can be expensive to hire a pro or buy detailed topo maps. Certainly it doesn’t make much sense to do any […]

Regenerative Agriculture for a better world

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orchard management

Pioneering the urban farm revolution, with Michael Ableman, author of Farm the City

Welcome back to another episode in the ongoing series on Regenerative Agriculture. Up until now I’ve spoken with growers and producers on cutting edge of profitable regenerative landbased enterprises and management techniques in rural areas, but there’s also a growing movement to produce food closer to where the heaviest concentration of people are, and that’s in cities. While the basics of growing food are fairly universal, there are a lot of uniques challenges that farmers in the city face that just aren’t present in rural or even suburban areas. And to get an experienced point of view on urban farming, […]

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compost

How to make rich microbialy active compost in record time

Whether you already have experience making your own compost or not, most methods take months before your have a good finished product. Let’s explore my favorite way to make rich mature compost at home without having to wait a long time. In order to speed up the process, let’s break down the steps of “hot” composting. What is compost and how is it made? There’s so much information on the web about compost and all of its benefits so in this article I’m going to break down the most important information and show you the simple steps that you can […]

Regenerative Agriculture for a better world

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Nutrition

Stewarding the holistic health of a community orchard

In the past I’ve talked to quite a few orchardists and agroforestry practitioners, especially in the series on Reforestation and Agroforestry at the end of last season, but I was really glad to be introduced to Michael Phillips’ work by a great friend of the show, Nick from Minnesota. After speaking late last year with Stephan Sobkowiak, Nick recommended that I look into Michael’s incredible books for an even deeper dive into the soil health and biological spraying mixes that MIchael has developed to promote holistic health as he pioneers the revival of the community orchard. Michael Phillips is a […]

Regenerative Agriculture for a better world

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soil building

Is hemp the answer to a regenerative future for American agriculture? with Doug Fine, author of American Hemp Farmer

I’ve been meaning to get in touch with someone who could explain to me the nebulous and exploding new farming industry around the ancient yet newly legalized hemp plant, and I found a gold mine of information in Doug Fine, the author of Hemp Bound and American Hemp Farmer. Doug is known as a solar-powered goat herder, comedic investigative journalist, and pioneer voice in cannabis/hemp and regenerative farming. He has grown hemp in four US states, and the genetics he’s developed are in five more. He’s an award-winning culture and climate correspondent for NPR, the New York Times, and the […]

Regenerative Agriculture for a better world

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ecosystem regeneration

How to restore soil and ecological health on a massive scale with regenerative agriculture, with Gabe Brown, author of from dirt to soil

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? [...]

Regenerative Agriculture for a better world

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Farming

Essential tools to accelerate agricultural land regeneration, with Rhamis Kent, Co-director of the Permaculture Research Institute

My guest today is someone who has been an inspiration to me since I first began to study permaculture almost a decade ago. Rhamis Kent has been the man behind the scenes for some incredible regeneration projects around the world through his work with the Permaculture Research Institute in the middle east, north and eastern africa, the Iberian peninsula, and many other regions of harsh and challenging climates. Though Rhamis is someone that I could talk to for days about so many different ecological topics, I reached out to him for this session because of a great article and presentation that […]

Regenerative Agriculture for a better world

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agroforestry

Can we make ecological agriculture mainstream by 2040? With John Kempf, author of Quality Agriculture

Welcome back everyone to another episode in this ongoing series on regenerative agriculture. Before we get started today I want to give a quick shout out. Before starting this series I’ve been in contact with a listener of the show named Nick who has been incredibly generous and helpful in sending me links and information about other practitioners in the field that I should check out. I’ve learned so much from the ideas he’s sent me so I just wanted to take the opportunity to say thanks to Nick for all his help and guidance. Today’s interview comes from one […]