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29TH EPISODE OF THE REGENERATIVE HOUR: Can we turn the 2020s into ‘The Regenerative Decade’? In this series of interviews about what that would imply, we talk ecology, deep adaptation, grief, compassion, passion, connecting with nature, resilience, revitalisation, restoration, and revolution | Podcast notes
In our summer series of programs for 2023, we are back with a Regenerative Hour about rehydrating the Australian landscape, regenerative and natural sequence farming, soil health and ecosystem restoration. These are longer interviews where we investigate important issues in more detail.
Our roving reporter Rusty visits three ecological agriculture people, who are working with the soil and with what Rusty terms Ecological Landscape Management and with principles of Permaculture and Natural Sequence Farming – addressing the water cycles and getting the climate back in order, removing carbon from the atmosphere and putting it into the ground with Regenerative Agriculture.
Our three soil health experts in the Hour are farmer and healthy soil advocate Glenn Morris, soil tester and consultant Kim Deanes, and beef farmer Adam Turner.
“We need to address the foundations. We are breaking the foundations nowadays. We are destroying the soil, the biology, the humus, native grasses – everything that created a constant water cycle. And from what I can see we are still not dealing with the basis of getting our climate back in order, getting the water cycle going. Farmers are in the box seat to doing a lot of things about these things, pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and tying it back up in the soil.”
~ Glenn Morris, farmer and healthy soil advocate
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After 20 years of research and experience, Glenn Morris has established that carbon sequestration – a process in which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in the soil carbon pool – is not only essential for restoring a stable climate, but also for regenerating landscape health and future water supplies. It brings a practical way to improve farm land.
Glenn has completed a Masters in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of Sydney. He believes that as land stewards, farmers need to champion the way landscapes are connected to the carbon cycle, and is passionate about farmers producing practical solutions for restoring a stable climate in the agriculture sector.
During the interview, as Glenn explains his approach, Rusty and Glenn sit under a box tree on the mountain.
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Kim Deans is a regenerative agriculture coach, an educator and a facilitator. Since 2004, together with her partner Angus, she has been working to grow soil on their farm that was once a tin mine.
Just a few years ago they were in drought, and in February 2019, the property was blackened by fire. However, they were not deterred, and during 2020 they saw how after the rain returned, the grasses and pastures also returned. They saw rewards from their farm management practices even after the property had been ravaged by fire.
The property remained destocked in the recovery process, and as a result, soil was capable of rehydrating and remaining stable so it did not blow away in dust storms once minimal ground cover had been re-established.
In the interview, Kim shows her passion for the soil. She believes a healthy soil gives us healthy food. It is also proof that what has been labelled RegenAg will provide the opportunity for the regeneration of grasses.
Both Kim and Angus are optimistic about the future. They see a positive from the fire in that it gave them the opportunity to redesign fencing type, configuration and the size of paddocks. The restocking has begun, and 2023 will demonstrate how these practices best work on arid pastoral country as Kim has the opportunity to work on stations in western New South Wales.
The process of growing healthy soil and restoring ecological function has been a rewarding one that continues to grow and evolve, with Kim now working in regenerative agriculture as a coach and educator with Integrity Soils.
Kim’s expertise in ecological agriculture, whole farm planning, systems thinking and business management has evolved through training and personal experiences in regenerative agriculture, holistic management, permaculture, farm business management and self-development. She loves working with land-stewards on all scales to transform their lives, businesses and landscapes.
Kim also provides group facilitation and training programs with The Rural Woman online community. Observing nature and learning to work with natural principles rather than against them is the foundation of her life’s work.
→ See more on www.biodynamiclife.com
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Young family embraces regenerative agriculture as the future for their farm and product
Adam Turner and his family have just recently embarked on the Regen Ag management transformation. The Turners wish to ensure that they stay true to the product and remain customer focused. Adam talks about how he intends to make property improvements. This alongside a business model to supply direct to butchers and provodores. It is a slow progress as they are young and need to still have off farm income.
Adam Turner and Rusty did the interview while sitting at the kitchen table on Adam’s property, Springhill, near Gresford in New South Wales, on the banks of the Paterson River in the Hunter Valley.
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How to achieve climate safety by rebuilding our landscape with its ancient blueprint: In The Regenerative Hour no 27, we talk with three champions of regenerative farming, land management and conservation farming practices.
→ The Land – 14 April 2021:
Introduction to Holistic Management and regenerative agriculture
“Holistic Management is about changing the way we make decisions to build resilience in our landscape and our communities.”
Lessons from ‘Healing Grounds’
A book review by Ronella Gomez
Ready to dive into the deep roots of regenerative agriculture? Make sure to add ‘Healing Grounds – Climate, Justice and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming’ by Liz Carlisle to your must-read list.
Ronella Gomez from Open Food Network found the book highly informative and insightful and has shared this review as a preview:
“To be able to go anywhere, even when violently dispossessed of your land or body, and grow home by cultivating a diversity of life around you with no forms of conventional capital and in doing so regenerate the Earth – that’s what we should look for in our role models.
It’s the indigenous and migrant peoples practicing their cultural heritage who cultivated the biodiversity in their homelands and their new homes – they are the cultural keystone species.
So, to evolve the food systems we need, we must lift up these peoples as thought leaders of enduring, culturally regenerative practices. Lift up their forms of capital, that have seen them through decades of discrimination – their reciprocal culture, their collective culture, 2,000 + year old regenerative agriculture innovations of diverse heirloom seeds, keystone animals, polycultures and food cultures – but most of all THEM.”
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“Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
~ Pete Seeger, American singer
→ See more Regenerative Hours from The Sustainable Hour team