First organic, then sustainable, now regenerative?
Language is powerful. We are always searching for better ways to express ourselves and frame our actions – sometimes we seem to reach the limits of our language, and other times we manage to birth a whole new cosmos in a single word.
Regenerative Farming is like that. Imagine: a practice that actually yields more than the sum of its inputs with each passing year; that builds soil fertility, increases organic matter, deepens topsoil, and sequesters carbon WHILE providing a diverse and complete nutritional food source; that turns farming back into a complex mutual relationship with the land and its many intertwined inhabitants; and that revitalizes land, community, local economies, and regional governance so that we can once again enjoy both the rights and responsibilities therein.
Our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature and the role of human beings within it has come nearly full circle to the wisdom of our indigenous ancestors as we emulate the Sankofa bird from Ghana: feet firmly planted forward, looking to the wisdom of the past, with the seed of the future grasped tenderly in our mouths.
We have already re-learned that excellent fertility is inherent in soil that is unmolested. And we re-affirmed the need to stop compromising the lives of future generations with extractive and wasteful practices. Now, finally, we are re-discovering a sense of ‘our place in the family of things,’ recognizing our distinctive capacity to heal the land and create the conditions conducive to more life, more diversity, and more abundance. To us, regenerative means all of this and more. It is a world emerging out of subversive resistance into enlivening potentialities.
Here at Nutwood Farm, we are seeking to embody regenerative practices on our land, in our business, with our community, and through our relationships. We want to heal the rifts in our minds, our society and our culture and incorporate the great wisdom of the past into a more just and resilient future.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Friends, this is the final week of our crowd-funding campaign! *
Our journey has been full of gracious humility and raw excitement. If you have been watching and waiting to join in, now is your chance to do it! With 123 amazing backers and over $7,600 raised, our feet (and our trees!) are firmly planted forward.
Now, help us fly !
Yours, always, in nutty solidarity,
Sara & Kalyan