The EcoIQ Project

This episode was with Curtis Stone. Curtis is the founder of the Urban Farmer (https://theurbanfarmer.co), a platform teaching how to farm in an urban or semi urban environment and turn a real profit. Curtis is the author of The Urban Farmer book (https://theurbanfarmer.co/book/). He manages the innovative Paperpot co (https://paperpot.co) farming tools shop with Diego Footer from Permaculture Voice. Hosts a high quality podcast, Liberty on the Land (https://libertyontheland.com), and a new and a amazing high value membership learning platform, From The Field (Fromthefield.farm) . 

Curtis farms his own homestead and is collaboratively developing a collective family based property as an abundant stronghold in turbulent times. With over 30 million views on Youtube and 360k subscribers. Curtis has helped thousands, jump from courses into profitable farming businesses. 

Curtis has become pretty famous in that interesting space of market gardening, and although the space of market gardening differs somewhat from my own passionate focus for many years on regenerative farming and a more broad acre and transformational approach, never the less the skills and knowledge and growth that manifests out of market gardens, have, i believe, incredibly high value in the whole picture of human transformation through a deeper connection with ecological processes. 

Having the ability to create  very fast turn around food system that can be set up rapidly and with basic knowledge and minimal investment. To experience rapid abundance for your family and community. Thats can be life changing or life saving for most of us. Curtis is well and truly aware of that transformational side that is born out of living from the land.

This was a really surprising episode for me, I knew from my previous talk with Curtis that there was way more to the urban farmer than market gardens and entrepreneurial farming. This episode I made a decision to follow the advice of my mentor and let my guest open up and explore his own message and ideas unfettered, and pivot my questions to encourage that.  

We went into uncharted waters (literally!) about the importance of liberty on the land. what is 'citizen ship', and about the tradeoff between freedom and convenience.   About the intimate and intricate link between liberty and personal responsibility.  

About how big ag and big pharma are removing our ability to assume more responsibility for our lives, our families and the land we live on, and should be living from. The result is ultimately way less freedom for us. 

Curtis covers the difference and importance of common law which is really the REALITY ON THE GROUND, and the legal law which is a created law. We also continually keep returning back to idea that abundance is a natural state and that a mindset of scarcity is a constructed reality. Encouraging more responsibility and cooperation or..... no responsibility and competition.

Curtis also shares a possible approach when dealing with the legal law vs the common law and your personal rights. I find this conversation very critical in our times for farmers especially and all peoples involved in entrepreneurship and harmony on the land. 

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did, and let me know what you think through the short questionnaire link below...

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"The outcome of an intervention has nothing to do with the skills of the intervener and it has everything to do with the place within from which the intervener comes." (Otto Scharmer)  "There are few areas that lend themselves to transformation as readily as farming.... ...all living processes are fundamentally transformative.." (John Kempf) For this episode I had the great pleasure to interview a recent hero of mine John Kempf. 

 This interview was very special for me personally and one of the real highlights of the show so far.  I really resonated with Johns’ approach to farming and ecology.  John's approach is a balance of excitement and seriousness about the work.  I found John to have a deep and high resolution image of the science behind regenerative farming and a firm stance on the important and sacred role of human beings within their nested farming ecologies.  

I really felt a renewal of potential from my talk with John and a genuine joy at his stories and experiences of resilience and transformation on all levels. The subtle blend of spiritual awareness and intellectual knowledge and wisdom really made me see John as a brother in arms.  It my opinion and I think John would agree, that there is a very clear path to a deep spiritual awakening and transformation through the open, intense and subtle use of the mind in trying to understand the complexity of living systems.  We will never get there but the journey is inherently empowering and eventually leads to the most natural miracle of all...   

Abundance. 

John Kempf is the CEO of the Regen Ag Academy (https://www.academy.regen.ag/) an online education platform, Advanced EcoAgriculture (https://www.advancingecoag.com/), an on-the-ground consultancy company, the sole contributor to his blog site John Kempf (https://johnkempf.com/blog/), and the host of the hugely popular and amazingly in-depth Regenerative Agriculture Podcast (http://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/). If that wasn't enough! John recently finished his book Quality Agriculture (https://www.qualityagriculture.com/), where he weaves the experiences of some of his most prominent guests together to showcase a growing global movement and a deepening relationship with agro ecology. John serves thousands of farmers in making a shift to the harmonious approach of regenerative farming.  Big on the bottom line for farmers, John is also outspoken on our need to shift our thinking to a more nuanced mindset that can more readily approach the stewardship of such complex living systems.  

Check out also Johns; Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRApdrU3BA0Pzo6MNWTD2jg), webinars (https://www.advancingecoag.com/webinars), and Plant Nutrition Pyramid 

   I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. and please check out the short questionnaire below, and let me know what you think. your feedback is what helps us grow and serve you better. feedback link is here>  https://forms.gle/ZVJjS4wKa7nQ8kvC6

What a pleasure to host Dr Charles Massy.  Another master storyteller.  

Dr Charles Massy is a farmer of more than 35 years and by his own account has learned from many deep mistakes on the land. 

In talking with with Charles I had the wonderful feeling I have with so many guests of intense excitement and hope that seems to accompany so many producers and followers in the Regenerative Agriculture Movement. Having authored several books, the latest being the highly acclaimed "The Call Of The Reed Warbler", Charles deeply believes in the relevance and power of storytelling. His latest book is actually just that! the personal stories that came out of interviewing over 80 farmers that made a transformation into regenerative agriculture.  The actual  story containing the 'call of the reed warbler' was the highlight of the interview... walking across the regenerated land of a farmer and being show a flowing creek restored to a thriving eco system and hearing the song of a bird that hadn't been in that area for maybe a hundred years.  .  ..

As our listeners know by now I like to go deep with our guests and covered many deep areas of transformations on many levels, with Charles.

We talk about the importance of communication among all things, the relevance of instinct and bio sensitivity, and the amazing speed of recovery and regeneration on lands managed largely by just 'getting out of the way'. 

The land, the food, the mind, the body, the soul. I know you'll enjoy this episode as much as I did.

"Regenerative Agriculture is a knowledge rich agriculture that anyone can own, and you are not dependant on top down corporations, the big machinery or the intellectual property behind the chemicals and patent seeds...........its a bottom up approach that empowers and is democratic.     This revolution is one based on peace and health. its kind of ironic. The Revolution of peace....."

Hi my friend. If you read down this far it means you appreciate what we doing with The EcoIQ Project. This is just the beginning. Our mission is to foster and empower deeper ecological connection in culture, in business, in body, mind, and soul .  A big part of that will very soon be education and on the ground projects.. Right now we are building our foundations and those are foundations include YOU!  This project is about you and your connection. Your feedback is invaluable to our progress and our ability to serve you and many other in the best way we can.  

The time to unite and start or accelerate your journey is NOW. Take a few minutes to support us and you and fill out some feedback right HERE        

( https://forms.gle/TpKPaUvidbpqU4AJA )

Thanks for listening 

Aharon Henderson

The EcoIQ Project

Last week we had the good fortune to sit down again with a massive entrepreneurial leader, friend, and hero of mine, Richard Perkins.

Richard is the founder of Ridgedale Permaculture farm in Varmland, Sweden and the author of Regenerative Agriculture, the most comprehensive book to come out on the subject to date. He hosts a very well followed youtube channel sharing insights and innovations from the farm and recently launched an online monthly membership site showcasing long form interviews of many of the successful young farmers who started out at Ridgedale Farm.  

Its always an event to host Richard, as the man has a depth and intensity that, as a host, I feel duty bound to prepare for.  This is a must listen episode for anyone wanting to, or already in the midst of, farming as a business. We go deep into the importance and nuances of an entrepreneurial spirit and mindset. The need to be independent of 'middle men' and to share successes openly with others, in particular regarding that highest of innovative intellectual properties, books. We open the subject of systems thinking, accelerated learning and Richard's own insights regarding this profound information and approach. We talk about the various nuances of teaching, learning and mentoring on and offline, and, of course we cover in detail the drive, purpose and backstory behind the latest evolution of regenerative agriculture's most prodigious educator. The Farm Like A Hero Experience. 

But most instructive and engaging of all is the 'everyday' insights and lessons shared from the journey, and life of a man on a serious mission to influence a movement and empower a community to make profound steps forward in a regenerative farming future for every young wannabe farmer with a dream.

Like Richard pointed out in our talk "we are all standing on the shoulders of those who pioneered the way before us", but even so, it's slowly dawning on me that in the area of regenerative farming today, Richard Perkins is hands down the leader of the movement forward, in terms of on the ground fully comprehensive, successful students, platforms and learning opportunities available.  

Highly recommend engaging in every aspect of what Richard and his team are offering.  The massively high value publication Regenerative Agriculture (https://www.regenerativeagriculturebook.com/), the constantly updated Ridgedale Permaculture farm youtube channel, the Ridgedale farm (www.ridgedalepermaculture.com) website itself and all the future courses coming up there, and of course the new and amazing Farm Like A Hero Experience (https://www.farmlikeahero.com). 

Be sure to leave me some feedback HERE (https://forms.gle/XuAm4XTqZSxZcpQB6), about what you did and didn't enjoy. We grow and evolve, and contribute more, from more interaction with YOU.   

enjoy.

Our guest this week was the activist, educator, artist and innovative mycologist Peter McCoy.

Peter is the self published author of Radical Mycology (2016), a massively comprehensive and in depth look at fungi and its many contexts at multiple levels including agro ecology, bio remediation, medicine, food, cultivation and the various cultures surrounding fungi.

Seeing another unfulfilled global need, and within one year after his book release, Peter founded Mycologos, the worlds first dedicated school for all things mycology, and the next iteration of his mission to bring to light and share the amazing keystone ecological element of fungi.

For the last 17 years Peter has been an advocate and an educator for understand the significance of fungi and its connection to basically everything ecologically speaking, including us. His work has featured in numerous news and media outlets and documentaries.

Peter is also the lead mycologist at Mycocycle a Chicago based bio remediation firm, and an advisor to various other platforms.  With more and more people awakening to the importance of understanding and working in alignment with ecological processes and cycles, his passion for communication and going deep into the rabbit hole of this elusive world brings us into an ever closer relationship with the indefinable and infinitely complex intelligence within our global ecologies and nature itself. 

Peter also hosts; Radical Mycology, a blog site to showcase blogs, art and other eclectic content, and the radical mycology convergence, a physical culmination of several years of Peters first project into Mycology, a humble zine of the same name, made just for friends. Facebook page is HERE, and HERE. and a new film festival one HERE.

I really enjoyed this interview, and we covered a LOT of ground regarding fungi, and its many contexts, and of Peter's personal passions and insights in his journey.  We also deep dive into the utility of the learning of fungi as a tool for personal transformation. I have always thought of the fungal world as the element of communication and connection in whole ecologies, and rightly the keystone 'piece' of the whole because of it..  It was amazing to hear this echoed by someone so deeply immersed and learned in the subject.  

With Peter McCoy "immersed" is the word, he has that natural obsessive drive displayed by so many natural entrepreneurs, the drive to express and expand and develop a unique message to a wider and wider audience. The new entrepreneur whose goal and mission is to share and give.  Something Robert Kiyosaki calls "Spiritual Money"

Hope you stick around to hear the whole this.  If you dig what we do, your feedback will help me adapt to YOU. You can fill out a small and fun form HERE and let me know what you think.  

In this period of time, at EcoIQ we have decided to run some interviews concerning the current global situation and all its elements.  As we move forward with our goal of fostering a deeper connection for us all with ecological cycles and processes. we will also begin releasing additional episodes with a focus on more controversial and human health issues.  While I would not at all consider myself a conspiracy theorist and nor do I have time to dive down those rabbit holes. Never the less I do feel it VERY important to be aware in a deeper way of certain agendas and vested interests and their effects on us at this time. This requires an open mind and critical thinking, to recognise truth and put aside what doesn't resonate with us individually without throwing out any attached wisdom, information or knowledge.  For me personally to becoming more aware is a painful but ultimately deeply liberating and powerfully motivating experience.

Our guest this week is Shai Danon, the founder of Raise The Frequency in Israel, an innovative and empowering platform that promotes a very open minded approach to transparency of information regarding community and global health at all levels. 

I really enjoyed talking with Shai and was very effected by our conversation, the biggest point for me was the huge importance of total individual  sovereignty mentally and physically, especially for our children, and to recognise when that is being infringed on.

Shai is an incredibly prolific and active community, vlogger, activist, educator, speaker and seeker of truth. With over 10k followers on youtube and well over 2M views, to clarify in our small country of Israel thats sizeable, and 100s of videos and papers covering, bio physics of water, sound healing, dangers of WiFi and 5G, bio physics of light, modern day radiation, and human bio hacking. Shai sees the importance of local support and has a deep sense of commitment and responsibility to the communities here in Israel. He interviews a huge range of thinkers, academics and professionals about the most controversial challenges we face today in our world, and last year Shai decided to file suit against sections of the government against the untried implementation of 5G technology into Israel.

Hope you enjoy and are moved by our talk as I was.

Amazing long form, round table conversation with Joel Salatin and Darren Doherty, recorded right before the CoVid lockdown. We get a real deep insight into what drives and concerns two amazing pioneers and innovators in agriculture and regenerative farming.

Joel Salatin is an outspoken advocate for free speech and choice in food and farmer relationships and transparency of production. An author of 12 eclectic books on farming, entrepreneurship, legal battles and spiritual ecological connection.  Joel's latest communications outreach is his ever relevant blog Musings From a Lunatic Farmer.  Joel is also the head of the highly acclaimed Polyface Farms and widely accepted as the most famous farmer of our time and a huge mentor to thousands of young and passionate new farmers. Also self described as a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. I have huge respect and affection for Joel as an elder, a friend and a God fearing farmer. 

Known as the master of process Darren Doherty has painstakingly developed an incredibly pragmatic and far reaching platform for total farm planning, the Regrarians Platform. With thousands of hours, ecological farm designs, implementations and successful students Darren’s innovative and incredible contribution to the regenerative farming movement is well established and most recently manifest in his long awaited book The Regrarians Handbook. When it comes to due diligence in farm planning and farming innovation Darren Doherty has become the undisputed last word.  I have a special respect and gratitude to Darren, as my first real teacher and connection into the world of regenerative farming and all the following evolutions. 

The Regarians team and Polyface Farms also collaborated in the production of the deeply moving and acclaimed documentary, Polyfaces. check it.

As we do at The EcoIQ Project, we like to dig deep into these leaders mindset, decision making processes and secrets of success, earned the long short way, through thousands of hours of involvement at all levels of regenerative farming and connecting to our intrinsic relationship to land, food, animals and country.

We cover:

A deep honour and pleasure to share words of wisdom from these two esteemed elders in this space. many lessons to mediate on and integrate. So get your pen ready and your finger poised over the rewind button, as we embrace the complexity in all things and go deep and dense with Joel Salatin and Darren Doherty.

Before the current global CoVid situation I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Uri Meyer-Chissick.     Uri is well educated in multiple areas of food cultures, food and nutrition history, including extensive research into medieval medical scholars including the famous Jewish scholar and doctor Maimondes.  

In Israel Uri is outspoken in the need to reconnect with our local biome and more specifically our local food history, cultures and traditions surrounding food.  Appearing on multiple Israeli news stations and independent media, including an amazing Ted Talk where he chronicles his family decision to go totally local for a year.

He also runs a centre in the north of Israel that reconnects people to; food and local food preparation traditions and place, through regular group wild foraging tours. For those wanting to go deeper still, Uri also consults privately on deeper health from his center, and educates in natural medicine through lectures online and in person, locally and globally. He is the author of several books on wildcrafting, food as medicine, as established in the medieval Arabic world, and local food vs the issue of modern processed food.  

It was a real pleasure to welcome Uri to the show. 

As always i value YOUR feedback, EcoIQ grows from and for YOU.   enjoy.

The EcoIQ Podcast hosts soil regeneration and farming optimising coach, Nicole Masters.

It was a real pleasure to get back to my own personal passion of all things soil science and biology. Nicole has an amazingly youthful energy that belies her deep passion for pushing the envelope of understanding and better practice in soils and production systems. Nicole’s approach remains refreshing undogmatic.

Nicole is academically trained agro ecologist, author and soil regeneration coach. Nicole has travelled intensely for years educating hundreds of farmers, and facilitating a deeper relationship and understanding of soil health in relation to food production systems.

A keen entrepreneur Nicole heads the team at the aptly named Integrity Soils, and recently finished her first publication, For The Love Of Soils. With demand for Nicole’s work and unique approach, far outstripping supply. Integrity Soils in set to embark on a mission to train more coaches and reach more producers who need help to make a shift in life, in business, in land practice and in mindset.

How talk was super engaging and we covered a real lateral spread of topics in the space of regenerative farming and entrepreneurship. I REALLY enjoyed this talk and look forward to our next meeting.

hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

2:00 Confronting personal bias as an individual

18:45 What is quorum sensing? microbes and insects

25:25 Why do I need animals on my farm and in my garden?

31:20 The miseducation of photosynthesis and measuring the basis of life.

46:57 Learning signs of succession, which direction are you heading?

53:25 The role of the entrepreneur, and soil coaching

1:03 What it takes to make Integrity Soils

1:05:30 Case studies of Integrity Soils

1:11:00 Another look at testing

1:15:10 Communication. learning to connect mind and heart

1:19:00 Spiritual succession and evolution

1:23:35 Going beyond health and the unique role of humans..

1:26:40 Nicole’s message: take heart, because something great is coming..