Regeneration Conversations: Episode 1 featuring Gary Zimmer & Andre Leu

Regeneration starts with a conversation.

So we asked a question to the global farming community.

What is Regenerative?

The answers we got are about to set the record straight.

In Episode 1 we get the privilege of hearing from Gary Zimmer & André Leu.

Gary Zimmer is Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Midwestern BioAg. Known as the “father” of biological agriculture, Zimmer is an internationally known author, speaker, and consultant. André Leu is the international director of Regeneration International, formerly the president of IFOAM-Organics International and he and his wife run an organic tropical fruit farm in Daintree, Australia. Both Gary and André are long time farmers and have played integral parts in driving forward alternative farming practices that have led us toward this regenerative agriculture movement.

In this conversation they stress the importance of maintaining the integrity of regenerative systems. They agree that our farming system needs to be moving toward regeneration and in order to call ourselves regenerative Gary Zimmer stresses, “We’ve got to have some kind of outcome measurement.” Gary’s fear as he states is, “The big corporations seem to be going out right now, wanting to use regenerative as a marketing tool, and I just hope that it’s not just something watered down.” Gary recognizes that even farmers practicing organic are a long ways away from being regenerative.

In André Leu’s excitement for regenerative agriculture he recognizes, “The idea of regenerative is that we are improving the system, we are going beyond sustainable, repairing it and allowing it to regenerate.” The conversation quickly turns toward soil health and the importance of raising soil organic matter, but our job as farmers doesn’t stop there under regenerative systems. André believes it’s also important to balance the minerals in our soil, in order to make it possible for regenerative systems to truly thrive.

This enlightening conversation between two world traveling, lifelong holistic farming systems thinkers will make you question your own practices and push you toward regeneration. You can see through this conversation, just how fun farming can be. Managing regenerative systems require us to be on the land and to witness the transformation of whole ecosystems. It eliminates the separation we have within modern conventional systems, where farmers have limited interactions beyond planting, tilling and harvesting by machine.

As the rise of awareness of regenerative practices surges, the food and farming communities and citizens call out for a healthier planet. The need to clarify the road forward is becoming more prevalent. The road to regeneration - the regenerative agriculture movement, is what some are calling our only hope.

These are the kind of conversations that are sure to strike a regenerative light bulb in your hearts and minds. Follow along as we continue to gather these conversations and share them with the world, because the time to regenerate is now.

Watch this episode and more at:

https://www.organiccompound.org/regeneration-conversations