The Regenerative Livelihood Podcast

RegenerativeLivelihoodPodcast.com   Josiah Meldrum is a co-founder of Hodmedod's, a side hustle gone wrong that now keeps him and many others in more than full-time employment. Josiah has a background in ecology and agricultural co-operatives, but his Masters in International Development led him to focus on regenerating the strength of local supply webs in Britain.......   Support the podcast - Sign up on Patreon! Join the community - Start a thread in the Facebook group!   After writing a report on a just food transition commissioned by East Anglia Food Link, Josiah and co became obsessed with the disconnect between the crops in the fields and the communities that lived beside them, and thus Hodmedod's was born. The daily work of Hodmedod's is to bring farms, farmers, consumers and the food on your plate into closer connection through facilitating sales of British-grown staple foods, such as the mighty fava bean.   In this episode you will learn about a disruptive enterprise interupting business-as-usual arable farming of commodity crops; You will learn about the history of the broad bean in Britain; You will learn about how to create a sense of place thruogh regenerative supply webs; The novel idea of the Agroecological Premium as well as the Future Crops Fund; and a few insider tips on how to get going on your own regenerative business idea.   Quote of the episode: "I prefer to think that we’re a node that brings transparency to a network and that we’re facilitating a relationship between the farm and the food on your plate...There needs to be a much more diverse picture and at the moment it’s a monoculture...of our minds, but also of the business models that are used to deliver food to us.”   Music: Permanent Holiday, Mike Love Unto This Land, Helen Yeomans

This podcast will not be releasing episodes regularly because lockdown, burnout, depression and little red wiggly worms have won over my attention. Thank you for your continued support of me and of the show, I will get it back up and running as soon as the alignment of the stars and planets allow for it. If you want this show back sooner rather than later please send affectionate scented letters to my email inbox, or find your way to https://www.patreon.com/regenerativelivelihoodpodcast and enjoy the view. You're wondyful x

Merry Solsticemas!! In my last episode of the year I am sharing a slow and reflective episode to be enjoyed with a full belly on a long, frosty walk. My guest Dan Palmer is the lead author and "practical design process philosopher" behind the Making Permaculture Stronger project, a mix of blogs and podcasts which I HIGHLY recommend looking into. He has a PhD in Systems Thinking but much prefers chickens, and over the last ~15 years he has set up and co-founded several exciting happenings such as the (now international) Permablitz movement, a hugely successful design & build firm Very Edible Gardens, and the education-focused Holistic Decision Making and Designing For Life projects. We talk about decision making, design and design process, and taking the reflective path of inquiry into what we might be looking for on our path towards a more regenerative livelihoods: a way of living that nourishes the soul, the land and our community, both on a deep and a mundane level.   Want to continue the conversation? Head to facebook.com/RegenerativeLivelihoods Feeling generous? Fuel this podcast with kindness and ££ at patreon.com/RegenerativeLivelihoodPodcast

Matt and I continue the conversation from Episode 7 with lots of laughter, some open-hearted chat and reflections on the Holistic Decision Making work we have been learning together. We talk about the experience of embedding into a landscape and the Welsh concept of "fro"; the value of traditional skills and knowledge whilst pursuing regenerative practices; finding the place to call home and learning skills on the land. Matt also shares more of his vision for Henbant Farm and how this has shifted over time from a simple self-sufficiency smallholding to a farm business that builds soil, and then further to a farm that builds resilience in the local community and allows his family and the volunteers to thrive as individuals. Watch/Listen to Matt's ode to Henbant on his Youtube Channel - guaranteed you will get a little bit teary and more than a bit fired up! regenerativelivelihoodpodcast.com patreon.com/regenerativelivelihoodpodcast

Sticking to short-standing tradition, I embark on a reflective journey in Episode 10 of The Regenerative Livelihood! Key things you'll hear me blether and babble on about: The direction of travel on my regenerative livelihood path Bumping into burnout SO MANY IDEAS Syndrome (SMIS) Holistic Decision Making, the art and skill of making decisions holistically Too many white men talking, again LIAM WINS THE (mushroom) LOTTERY Why music matters (and slavery ain't no joke) 15% off everything at greengrowfods.shop until the end of NOVEMBER - use discount code Regen Podcast RegenerativeLivelihoodPodcast.com is a good place to find me, I'm mostly often usually up for a chat with pretty much anyone about many things. Thanks for listeninginginninengningeninginenigninening ifyousubscribetomymailinglisthereinthenexttwoweeksI'llsendyouaprettypostcard

RegenerativeLivelihoodPodcast.com   Today's conversation is with Iain Findlay, co-founder of Green Grow Foods which is a mushroom growing business using zero waste principles to power their production processes.   Support the podcast - Sign up on Patreon! Join the community - Join the Facebook group!   After decades of activism, Iain has finally fallen in love with mushrooms - and it shows! Having begun the latest chapter of his career as a consultant and educator in sustainability issues and circular economy principles, it soon became clear that the most powerful educational tool he could create was a model of what a circular business looks like.   He shares with us his journey from protester in the streets and Camp Piper at Occupy London, through burnout and out the other side as co-founder of a multi-award-winning business producing delicious, nutritious and "functional" foods. He also introduces his vision for the Green Grow Club as a way of spreading the knowledge and skills of medium-scale mushroom growing and for helping new growers find a market for their produce.   In reflection, what really struck me about Iain was the sheer number of projects, protests and businesses he has been involved with over several decades. As we note early on in the conversation, his life as an environmentalist began before I was born - which gives me food for thought when it comes to evaluating which direction I should be taking next in order to move forward my regenerative livelihood.   Quote of the episode: "We're not just a company that sells these little food pouches that you can cook in half an hour, no - we've got a bigger agenda...[thinking like this, you] end up creating a product that is nutritious [and] helps to regenerate the biosphere. Fights cancer, doesn't create it; Fights depression, doesn't create it; Fights obesity, doesn't create it. It's a win win win, it just keeps going!"   Organisations and events mentioned: Aurora Sustainability Group Integrative Solutions Green Grow Foods Climate Launchpad VIBES - Scottish Environment Business Awards Greenpeace Glasgow Faslane Peace Camps Pollok Free State Talamh Life Centre Alliance for Water Stewardship Occupy London COP1 in Berlin   Music credits: Permanent Holiday by Mike Love Unto This Land by Helen Yeomans  

RegenerativeLivelihoodPodcast.com   Today's conversation is with Feidhlim Harty, director of FH Wetland Systems Ltd. which is an Irish-based company designing and constructing wetland systems, and other solutions to domestic, commercial and agricultural waste.   Support the podcast - Sign up on Patreon! Join the community - Start a thread in the Facebook group!   Feidhlim is a leader in wetland system design, having practiced for over two decades. He is also an influential writer, having written books about permaculture and wetland systems design and construction as well as two further books focused on zero waste lifestyles.   He shares with us his many years of experience in design and construction and reflects on his journey from a young, ambitious upstart to a leading authority on ecological waste treatment in wet temperate climates. He also introduces us to the enterprising spirit that his Quaker family impelled in him from a young age, his vision for wetland systems in every pub in every town and village, and discusses the possibilities of more regenerative livelihoods in this area of work.   Looking back at this conversation, I can easily take myself back to the room I recorded this conversation in, and the joy I had in speaking to Feidhlim at the time. I also remember taking away some real lessons which have really stuck with me in the two years since. I hope you, too, find nuggets of wisdom that help you on your way to live and work regeneratively.   Quote of the episode: "Sustainability isn't even green, it's just not dying! It'd be nice to go an awful lot further...the current economic model inherently produces deserts and polluted rivers, it's what it does best."   Organisations and people mentioned: FH Wetland Systems Ltd. Herr Permanent Publications   Music credits: Permanent Holiday by Mike Love Motherland by Helen Yeomans

RegenerativeLivelihoodPodcast.com   Today's conversation is with Matt Swarbrick, owner of Henbant Farm in north-west Wales. As well as a farmer Matt is an ecologist, former documentary producer with the BBC and a permaculture designer, and his project of a lifetime is to breathe life back into a derelict hill farm and its surrounding community by farming ecologically, holding courses, hosting campers and designing his regenerative livelihood within the landscape.   Support the podcast - Sign up on Patreon! Join the community - Start a thread in the Facebook group!   This episode is the first of many with Matt, as we share with each other our respective journeys of carving out a regenerative livelihood. In this interview we get to know a bit about Matt's past, his present, and try to dig a bit at what it might be that defines Matt's essence, what makes him a truly unique individual, which we'll unpack a bit more of when we embark on our Part Two later on this year.   Through this mini-series, Matt and I are going to attempt to document our processes, and our reflections on those processes, on our journeys to discover what it means to live and work regeneratively. This means we'll be asking questions about, well, what does this MEAN in the first place? What does it feel like, when it's happening? And what does it look like, in practice? Excited? I am!   Every moment speaking with Matt was a moment joyfully lived, and I look forward to recording Part Two in the weeks to come!   Quote of the episode: "In my head, the future of civilisation is in the hands of farmers. If anyone can turn us away from that cliff edge that society is heading towards, it's within the farming community...What could be a better job?! To produce stuff that's healthy, to be part of an ecosystem that's growing and understand that ecosystem, to be able to build that richness in it...Like, it's such a gift of a job!"   Music credit: Permanent Holiday by Mike Love

RegenerativeLivelihoodPodcast.com   Today's conversation is with Nikki Darrell, co-founder of The Plant Medicine School (and a billion and one other things) which runs one- to three-year certified courses in Community Herbalism based in Ireland, having recently moved to Co. Wexford.   Support the podcast - Sign up on Patreon! Join the community - Start a thread in the Facebook group!   Nikki Darrell is an expert herbalist with over two decades spent working in intimate connection with the plants, having built on her training as a research biologist and botanist to become aware of the ways that many traditional cultures of the world approach healthcare holistically, and in communion with the plant communities native to their local ecology.   With the many years she has spent studying, researching, educating about and practicing herbal medicine, community resilience and purposeful enterprise, Nikki is a fount of wisdom worth taking the time for.   Looking back at this conversation I am somewhat blown away by Nikki's vision of world domination (by the plants, with us helping) and I'm feeling hufely grateful for the wealth of knowledge and experience she shares with us here. Her passion and deep affection for the health of plant and human communities alike is palpable throughout, as you will hear for yourself.   Quote of the episode: "It is a vocation, and you know, a few people have said that to me, it's probably the reason I am alive...[but then] people say 'Ahh you're so lucky' and I tell them 'It was bloody. Hard. Work!'"   Organisations and people mentioned: Veriditas Hibernica The Plant Medicine School University College Cork - Centre for Co-operative Studies   With gratitude: For the music, Permanent Holiday by Mike Love For the editing, originally cut by Ryan Sandford-Blackburn

RegenerativeLivelihoodPodcast.com   In today's episode I'm flying solo for the first time with a stream of consciousness-style format. I wanted to create some space in my publishing schedule to reflect on the journey of putting this work in the public domain, and I wanted to share these reflections with you.   In these musings, I cover the need for us all to work deeply and search for our own authentic selves whilst also searching for our regenerative livelihood; in fact, they are inseparable paths. I also try to power home that this community right here - yes YOU there in the audience with the funny hair - needs to be taking itself more seriously than ever as we face up to the challenging and terrifying narratives that dominate and domineer the public sphere. As earth repairers, as community builders and as storytellers, we need to knit together closely and weave a new and undeniably more compelling vision for society that goes far beyond 'problem solving'.   As ever, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the Facebook group.   Music credit: Mike Love - Permanent Holiday

RegenerativeLivelihoodPodcast.com   Today's conversation is with Thomas Riedmuller, co-founder of the two-year Sustainable Horticulture / Permaculture course available at Kinsale College for Further Education.   Support the podcast - https://www.patreon.com/regenerativelivelihoodpodcast   Join the community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/regenerativelivelihoods   Kinsale is a state-funded college in a quiet and beautiful corner of Ireland, that just so happens to host the world's first full-year, full-time adult education permaculture course! Thomas Riedmuller has been teaching on the course since its inception nearly twenty years ago, alongside developing a small ecovillage where he now lives and works.   The simplicity of the course's title belies the deep richness that it offers. As well as the typical gardening and design skills you might expect to learn on such a course, Thomas shares how the course focuses heavily on leadership skills, including conflict resolution and entrepreneurship.   I loved speaking to Thomas because of his candid style, and because he brings a depth of life experience as a mediator, father, designer and entrepreneur to his teachings. His unique perspective ties together many passions that I share, and I was inspired to hear about the long-term work that Thomas has invested in the international permaculture community and beyond.   If you're interested in enrolling with the College, applications are now open for all of their courses and the entry requirements are quite accessible.   Quote of the episode: "I suffered burnout myself...I was seriously debilitated for months and I know many people in this line of passion and work who get burnt out and, err..it's bullshit! We need honest business models where people don't get burnt out."   Organisations and people mentioned: Kinsale College for Further Education Rob Hopkins - Co-founder of Transition Network Transition Network The Hollies - Centre for Practical Sustainability Bantry Bay - Protect Our Native Kelp Forest     Music credit: Permanent Holiday - Mike Love

Regenerativelivelihoodpodcast.com   If you want to learn how to off-set your own carbon footprint, or are looking for a way to finance woodland creation on some land, then this is the episode for you!   In this episode I'm speaking to friend and colleague Matt Hay, Project Manager at Forest Carbon, about the role of finance in restoring ecologies and sequestering carbon.   Matt has always been a keen lover of the natural world and started his career taking a deep dive into the world of weather whilst working for the Met Office. Since then he has fallen in love with trees, forests and the Scottish landscape which has led to him becoming a director of the charity Reforesting Scotland, as well as making a livelihood from investing other people's money into woodland creation.   The conversation today explores the need for a place - and a price - for greenhouse gases in an economy that still talks about its problems in terms of 'externalities'. The company he works for - Forest Carbon - is a pioneer in putting financial value on carbon sequestration, which they facilitate through new woodland creation and peatland restoration. We discuss the moral issue of capitalist markets which are able to trade in 'natural capital' and invest in 'ecosystem services', and whether such terms are a necessary means towards ecosystem restoration within an all-powerful money-driven economy.   We also talk a lot about trees! Being the main 'tool' at Forest Carbon's disposal. We discuss the relationship between climate change mitigation and adaptation and how all tree planting in the UK and beyond needs to be working towards both at the same time, not one separate from the other, in order to be truly regenerative. Taking in the context of the UK's current woodland cover, its booming timber industries and the current upheaval coursing through the conservation sector in the theory and practice of conservation ecology, we have a look at how the structure of a lean, streamlined and adaptable business can respond much more flexibly and impactfully than its charitable counterparts.   Quote of the episode: "We are a *for profit business* in the sense that we are not a social enterprise or a charity, but...when you look at the ethos the two co-founders brought to the table when they were starting this business...one of them was determined to stop treating environmental costs as externalities, the other one was just obsessed with getting trees in the ground. So those are their motivations...not to make money, and the decision to stay as a for-profit company is really more about keeping us lean and streamlined and adaptable."   Organisations and people mentioned: Forest Carbon Matt's Blog Jim Knight - A Forest for a Future (short version) Borders Forest Trust The Woodland Trust Trees for Life   Music credit: Permanent Holiday - Mike Love

Regenerativelivelihoodpodcast.com In this episode, I have the great pleasure of interviewing Oliver Bettany, Membership and Engagement Manager at the Ecological Land Co-operative. Oliver has been an environmental activist for over a decade, more recently focusing on the food sector and sustainable agriculture. Alongside his job at the ELC, he is a humanistic counsellor working with eco-therapy and eco-psychology.   Today's conversation explores the inner workings of the Ecological Land Co-operative, from its vision of a thriving and flourishing small-scale agriculture sector - by bringing awareness of the connections between health, nutrition, carbon emissions and the food system - to the nitty gritty of its governance and financing models which are uniquely designed to regenerate "cultural fertility". By showing that it is viable to create a small scale farm that works economically, and demonstrate that ecological agriculture is possible, the ELC are proving concepts to the authorities that be that an alternative model of farming and feeding the people is possible. We go in-depth on co-operative models and Community Benefit Societies, and Oliver talks about the significant investment the ELC puts into researching the impacts of the co-op's daily work, of small-scale agriculture in general and of the concept of a 'land co-operative' that they are pioneering. This investment - and the transparency of organisational learning they are demonstrating - will be of huge value for years to come, as this sector is growing on a daily basis, and is available in the public domain. For an up to date list of publications that ELC has produced in this area, visit https://ecologicalland.coop/publications. Quote of the episode:  "There should be an inherent sense of wellbeing from working in a more permanent culture - [where it is possible to] live close to the land, where the more than human world of nature is honoured, and where understanding of our relationship with ecology is more embedded in our psyches. In that kind of a culture, work feels like a different kind of endeavour."   Organisations and people mentioned: The Real Farming Trust Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience; Coventry University   Music credit: Permanent Holiday - Mike Love

Regenerativelivelihoodpodcast.com What does it mean to live - and work - in harmony with your ethics, your values and your activism? What can we do to accelerate a culture shift towards a more regenerative paradigm, and...how do we do it whilst paying the bills?! Exploring money and the economy, passion and burnout syndrome, activism and entrepreneurialism, The Regenerative Livelihood Podcast is setting sail and hoping to spark a unique conversation around how we - as activists and seekers of change - can tip the economy in our favour. That's what this channel is all about. Starting with the movements I know about - such as permaculture and co-operatives in Britain - I hope to explore far and wide across the globe and span many different approaches to regenerative design and practice, finding unique and intriguing ways of making a regenerative livelihood at every turn. Join me, it'll be a laugh.