Can Your Beans Do That?

I've been wanting to do an informal conversational format for a while, and who better to start with than my good friend, Inga, who is passionate about agricultural and the myriad of issues that interconnect. Let me know if you enjoy this sort of format.

(For those of you interested, I am giving a short talk after a free viewing of the documentary Kiss The Ground. My talk will be live-streamed at https://www.facebook.com/lyric.blacksburg Tuesday October 26, at 8:30 pm EST.) I've been wanting to do an informal conversational format for a while, and who better to start with than my good friend, Inga, who is passionate about agricultural and the myriad of issues that interconnect. Let me know if you enjoy this sort of format.

Technology is anything but neutral. And yet we swim in it like fish in water. Best we take a step back and reconsider exactly what we get out of technology and what it takes away from us.

A lateral approach to nutrition.

Some question why taste is included in the web of sustainability. Rather than just a cherry on top, I see pleasure as essential to the whole endeavor of regenerative agriculture.

Most rural agricultural communities have suffered the same fate as soils and African countries at the mercy of foreign aid. Supporting local is part of the antidote by buffering the constant flooding of the market and revitalizing the infrastructure that supports appropriately-scaled agriculture.

In order to remain successful and regenerative at the same time, a farm must keep a number of issues synergistically in tension. Championing one at the expense of others typically results in a warped operation. Big thanks to Natasha Shannon who is now my coach and editor.

Helping is an art. And when done improperly, can cause great harm and foster dependency. What applies to aid in Africa has pertinence to ameliorating soil when vegetable farming. Appropriate inputs are vital, but so is appropriate scale.

I eat a lot of organic vegetables. Boy do I eat those veggies. Then why do I insist on bringing up the 'dark' side of vegetable operations? In order to distinguish the baby from the bathwater, I discuss the difficult hurdles vegetable growers, as well as grain growers, face in order to meaningfully call their agriculture regenerative.

Highlighting the shortcomings of approaching answers simply through mitigation.