I first met Shad Qudsi when I assisted on a natural building workshop with Liz Johndrow in November of 2016. Shad's farm "Atitlan Organics" hosted the workshop in which we built a new kitchen area for the farm. Since then he and I have worked on a few projects together and he continues to be a wealth of knowledge and experience, not only about permaculture, but about the local culture here in Guatemala and about regenerative business advice as well. Shad is originally from New Jersey, but resettled in Tzununa on Lake Atitlan nearly a decade ago with his wife. Together they run one of the most diverse and abundant permaculture farms I've ever visited as well as the "bambu hotel," an incredible example of bamboo framing and bajareke walls built by Charlie Rendall (one of my natural building mentors). In this interview Shad shares his unique insights about initial steps in developing a permaculture farm, how to grow a complete diet, why he disagrees with the modern environmental movement, and much more. As promised in the intro, there's also a bonus audio here in the "resources" section in which Shad gives invaluable business advice on how to manage multiple operations in a regenerative business, so don't forget to check that out.  

As always, these episodes are meant to be a dialogue and conversation starter more than a lecture series. Especially in these early days of getting the podcast up and running I really appreciate feedback, comments, ideas, whatever. You can even e-mail me directly at info(at)abundantedge.com. I want to hear from you! If you enjoyed this episode please share it with your friends or others who you think might benefit from the information and insights in these episodes. I'm looking forward to making these as useful and informative for everyone looking to make the world and our environment a better place.

Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaQhzvfsGGDZvs4ufEZmJmw This is the link to the youtube channel for Atitlan Organics. Here you'll find a ton of entertaining and educational videos about permaculture and farm skills.