Nature of Business: Recent Episodes
Ben Johnson, Niels Moshagen, Jaap Fris
What if nature led our business?
This is your place to learn about regenerative ideas and principles
*Nothing wakes you up quite like death.
For Sean O'Farrell, organic farmer from Ireland, killing all the earthworms kick started his own journey to organic farming.
This week on A Good Conversation with Jaap Fris, Niels Moshagen and others we talked about shifting the minds of conventional farmers to regenerative practises.
Change is hard. We're hardwired to hold on.
But, as with Sean, death is a good start point. Letting go of old ideas, of old practises, is like mourning. We're likely very invested (financially, emotionally, mentally) in our old ways of thinking and doing. This investment makes change hard. We need to mourn the old.
That's one way, anyway.
We also talk about top down vs bottom up change, about being told what you can't do vs celebrating new things you might want to do instead.
Shifting mindsets, behaviours and practises to more regenerative ideas is a big task, touching on all these ideas and more.*
If you’re interested in regenerative ideas and principles, or are working in regeneration (whether on a farm or not!), or have heard about it and are curious, then we’re for you!
Join us each Monday afternoon for conversation, questions and Anglo-Dutch good times (more on that later!).
Register here in order to receive your Zoom registration details. https://forms.gle/qhYQwtk8PiGAuycy9
Join us every Monday 3:30am (CET), 2:30am (GMT) for a discussion about all things regeneration/regenerative - whether farming / business / society / culture / money!
Each week, we’ll explore a different theme, in discussion with you, as we try to understand, make sense of and explore the evolving regenerative movement.
This time we talked about the dangers of (not) having a definition of regeneration. About having a clearly defined goal or just a "vague" idea and taking small steps toward it (the process). What does this mean for consumers and farmers? How does the story continue? It certainly is about relations.
If you’re interested in regenerative ideas and principles, or are working in regeneration (whether on a farm or not!), or have heard about it and are curious, then we’re for you!
Join us each Monday afternoon for conversation, questions and Anglo-Dutch good times (more on that later!).
Register here in order to receive your Zoom registration details. https://forms.gle/qhYQwtk8PiGAuycy9
Join us every Monday 3:30am (CET), 2:30am (GMT) for a discussion about all things regeneration/regenerative - whether farming / business / society / culture / money!
Each week, we’ll explore a different theme, in discussion with you, as we try to understand, make sense of and explore the evolving regenerative movement.
If you’re interested in regenerative ideas and principles, or are working in regeneration (whether on a farm or not!), or have heard about it and are curious, then we’re for you!
Join us each Monday afternoon for conversation, questions and Anglo-Dutch good times (more on that later!).
Register here in order to receive your Zoom registration details. https://forms.gle/qhYQwtk8PiGAuycy9
Join us every Monday 3:30am (CET), 2:30am (GMT) for a discussion about all things regeneration/regenerative - whether farming / business / society / culture / money!
Each week, we’ll explore a different theme, in discussion with you, as we try to understand, make sense of and explore the evolving regenerative movement.
If you’re interested in regenerative ideas and principles, or are working in regeneration (whether on a farm or not!), or have heard about it and are curious, then we’re for you!
Join us each Monday afternoon for conversation, questions and Anglo-Dutch good times (more on that later!).
Register here in order to receive your Zoom registration details. https://forms.gle/qhYQwtk8PiGAuycy9
Join us every Monday 3:30am (CET), 2:30am (GMT) for a discussion about all things regeneration/regenerative - whether farming / business / society / culture / money!
Each week, we’ll explore a different theme, in discussion with you, as we try to understand, make sense of and explore the evolving regenerative movement.
If you’re interested in regenerative ideas and principles, or are working in regeneration (whether on a farm or not!), or have heard about it and are curious, then we’re for you!
Join us each Monday afternoon for conversation, questions and Anglo-Dutch good times (more on that later!).
Register here in order to receive your Zoom registration details. https://forms.gle/qhYQwtk8PiGAuycy9
Join us every Monday 3:30am (CET), 2:30am (GMT) for a discussion about all things regeneration/regenerative - whether farming / business / society / culture / money!
Each week, we’ll explore a different theme, in discussion with you, as we try to understand, make sense of and explore the evolving regenerative movement.
If you’re interested in regenerative ideas and principles, or are working in regeneration (whether on a farm or not!), or have heard about it and are curious, then we’re for you!
Join us each Monday afternoon for conversation, questions and Anglo-Dutch good times (more on that later!).
Register here in order to receive your Zoom registration details. https://forms.gle/qhYQwtk8PiGAuycy9
Today the sun is shining.
The sky is blue.
Plants are blooming.
Leaves are shooting (not literally).
The world looks alive and vibrant.
A few years ago, Ben heard a talk by Zach Bush, MD.
It was about food and health and our guts and the gazillions of microbes living happily inside our insides.
And soil.
Healthy food = healthy guts.
Healthy guts = happy heart, healthy mind.
And healthy soil = healthy food.
Yet soil is a limp, pale shadow of its former self. Sucked lifeless by industrial grade agriculture.
Dead soil = dead people.
Zach's talk planted a seed, you might say.
Who knows where it will go / grow.
For now Ben is keen to learn how he might help breathe life back into these wilting lands.
And to learn, he talks.
With Jaap Fris and Niels Moshagen on the Good Conversation podcast (and Matt Tipping and Julian Robertson and many others over recent weeks too).
Last week we talked about how #regenerative ideas are relevant beyond farming.
Ideas like #collaboration and #connection, #diversity and #growth. About #ownership and giving back more than you take.
Next week we're talking the farm of the future - Jaap and Niels’s motivation. A farm as a place to #renew, #regenerate. Not just grow #food.
Join us Monday at 1430 (UK time).
Link to register below 👇👇
https://forms.gle/cZ2sASjZLR1TX3SX9
Most of us (mainly) talk.
And a few act.
Jaap Fris and Niels Moshagen are acting.
The world needs healthier soil and better, more local food.
And rather than just talk about it - like me - they’re creating it.
We set up The Good Conversation (about #regeneration) podcast as a place to learn about the regenerative movement. To learn about #food and #culture and #business and #work. Via a regenerative lens.
We’ve talked about ownership. We’ve talked about death and ending things things well. We’ve talked about waste; about shit not being shit.
And we’ve talked about Jaap and Niels setting up their farm.
They are learning about and working towards a regenerative future by living it. On the farm, with their families, creating and selling food to the local community, and breathing new life into the soil as they do. Well, they're trying to, at least.
We'll be back, stronger, more creative and fully regenerated in our new slot next Monday 230pm UK time / 330ppm CET.
Until then.
Shit isn't shit.
That's how we ended last week's Good Conversation about #regeneration.
Julian Robertson made the above good point (talking about the benefits of waste, obvs! I lent the bad language). Sean O'Farrell brought the farming expertise. And Jaap Fris and Niels Moshagen the #business meets #farming perspective.
We started the podcast as a place to learn about and share with the regenerative movement.
Maybe for the regenerative movement to grow beyond farming to businesses and society beyond, we all need to be better at waste.
Like...
Wasting our time; going slow and taking the long road.
Or...
Wasting our money; better sharing it with the eco and social systems on which we depend.
Love our waste more generally.
In that spirit, please waste your time with us. It's well worth it.
And in the regenerative spirit, today we're taking a little break, wasting chocolate eggs on our stomachs and looking after children.
We'll be back, stronger, more creative and fully regenerated in our new slot next Monday 230pm UK time / 330ppm CET.
Until then.
Another week, another Good Conversation about #regeneration with Niels Moshagen, Jaap Fris and Ben Johnson.
This week we discussed, 'if nature set up a business, what would it look like?'.
Well, brutal and harsh, for starters. Endings as important to nature as beginnings.
And we talked ownership, the importance of being local, of culture creating the right (or wrong) conditions and money too.
What we learn for our farm, we try and translate to our #work, #business, #society. In pursuit of a regenerative society that works for future generation al well.
We started the podcast to learn. And chat. It is a conversation, after all. And will be made richer by your contribution. Join us.
To ready for next week, please sign up!
https://forms.gle/T71gef3rHQUz4QWGA
Week #2 of a Good Conversation (about regeneration), our small Anglo-Dutch journey into the regenerative movement, is now complete!
We shall overcome Brexit (and the North Sea) as we dive ever deeper into regenerative #farming #business #culture.
In todays chat we learned, most importantly, Jaap and Niels are actual farmers now (or will be very soon!). The Market Garden is starting.
Two years ago they decided to be serious about fixing the problems we face, they needed to change the system. And where better to do this than on the land. Now they are farmers.
Today we talked about regenerative principles that might inspire / translate to business.
- Ownership models are important. On their regenerative farm, nobody should own the soil and the community it serves should have a controlling stake in the rest of the business. What do these ownership ideas mean for business more generally?
- Jaap asked the question : if nature set up a business, what would it look like? Sander Bosman spoke about the importance of scale and diversity to create dynamic regenerative systems…
- Matt Tipping joined us again too. He shared the view that regenerative models translate to business in their culture. The culture - the norms, practises are behaviours - are either re-generative or not. An organisation's culture is the equivalent of soil in the forest; it determines it’s health and vitality.
We set the Good Conversation up as a place to learn and share… and that’s what we’re doing.
Thanks to Matt and Sander for your contributions this week.
Next week we might go deeper into a question which came up today….
If nature set up a business, what would it look like?
What do you think?
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Join us every Tuesday 10:30am (CET), 9:30am (GMT) for a discussion about all things regeneration/regenerative - whether farming / business / society / culture / money!
Register here in order to receive your Zoom registration details. https://forms.gle/qhYQwtk8PiGAuycy9
Join us every Tuesday 10:30am (CET), 9:30am (GMT) for a discussion about all things regeneration/regenerative - whether farming / business / society / culture / money!
Each week, we’ll explore a different theme, in discussion with you, as we try to understand, make sense of and explore the evolving regenerative movement.
This weeks theme: Regeneration is only for farmers, right?
If you’re interested in regenerative ideas and principles, or are working in regeneration (whether on a farm or not!), or have heard about it and are curious, then we’re for you!
Join us each Tuesday morning for conversation, questions and Anglo-Dutch good times (more on that later!). Register here in order to receive your Zoom registration details. https://forms.gle/qhYQwtk8PiGAuycy9