Learn how Vincent Medina & Louis Trevino are reviving & strengthening Indigenous Foods in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Next Economy Living: Vincent Medina & Louis Trevino on Reviving & Strengthening Indigenous Foods of SF Bay Area
Rick Ridgeway: Why Patagonia is Moving from Sustainability to Regeneration (Rebroadcast)
"When you dig down into any social justice issue, more often than not, the causes have some root in environmental degradation." - Rick Ridgeway
In this episode of Next Economy Now, Ryan Honeyman, a Partner at LIFT Economy, interviews Rick Ridgeway, VP of Environmental Initiatives at Patagonia.
Rick Ridgeway is one of the originals at Patagonia. He was rock climbing buddies with Yvon Chouinard before Patagonia was founded in 1973.
In this episode, we discuss Rick’s background as a photographer and filmmaker, his time on Patagonia's board of directors, and why Rick got his first “real job” only 12 years ago. We also dive into Patagonia’s famous mission statement to “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”
As you’ll hear, Rick is especially interested in moving away from “causing no unnecessary harm” (or sustainability) to “doing good” (which is regenerative). Rick and I discuss how things like soil health, regenerative agriculture, rotational grazing, and clothing that benefits the climate are increasingly on Patagonia’s radar.
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Interview Highlights:
In this interview, Ryan and Rick discuss a number of topics, including:
Why Patagonia doesn’t mention solving social or community issues in its mission statement
What happened when Patagonia discovered forced labor in its Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers last year
Why the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is the largest trade association in apparel and footwear in the world
Whether he is optimistic or pessimistic about the future
Patagonia’s new initiatives in carbon sequestration
Why you should know Fred Kirschenmann (from the Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture), the Carbon Underground, and Kiss the Ground
And much more
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The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.
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Show Notes + Other Links
For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast
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Doria Robinson & Princess Robinson: BIPOC Community Wealth Building at Cooperation Richmond
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Growing up with a mother who was an illegal resident from Samoa, a single parent of 4 children with no educational background, Princess Robinson was raised in a low income community in Richmond CA with little resources and an unstable home.
Now herself a mother, wife, Richmond resident, and community advocate, Princess Robinson has worked with Urban Tilth, as an environmental steward, restoring creek ecosystems and providing fresh locally grown produce in food deserts throughout Richmond.
After years of community service, neighborhood meetings, community boards, and serving in many initiatives working toward a Just Transition economy throughout her community (such as beautification projects, alternative housing solutions, and implementing sustainable practices through climate justice systems), as a returning college student, Princess graduated 2019 with 3 AA degrees in business, sociology, and liberal arts.
Currently, she serves as a Project Manager for Cooperation Richmond where she supports her community members develop and launch worker-owned cooperative businesses in their community.
Doria Robinson is a 3rd generation resident of Richmond, California and the Executive Director of Urban Tilth. She is also a cofounder of Cooperation Richmond, a Richmond-based, resident-led worker-owned cooperative developer and small loan fund that builds community controlled wealth through worker-owned and community-owned cooperative businesses and enterprises by and for low-income communities and communities of color in Richmond whose wealth has been extracted.
Doria is also a dedicated Food Sovereignty, Climate Justice and Just Transition Activist, as well as the co-convener of US Food Sovereignty Alliance Western Region and an active member of the Climate Justice Alliance and Richmond Our Power Coalition. Doria currently lives in the neighborhood where she grew up in Richmond with her wonderful 18-year-old twins.
Interview Highlights:
The genesis of Cooperation Richmond, from Urban Tilth to leveraging values-aligned enterprise through cooperative development that supports and really meets people where they’re at
Some background on the Seed Commons, spawned by The Working World, and it’s relationship with Cooperation Richmond
An overview of the racialized and economic history of Richmond California – from the impact of wartime industries to Chevron and the significance of these community efforts in that context
A call for listeners to create local loan funds or investment clubs that advance Cooperation Richmond’s model in your local community
Resources:
Princess Robinson’s work w/ Wildcat Creek
Help these ideas reach more eyes & ears:
LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.
Modou Sowe: No-Till Farming in California & The Gambia
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Modou Sowe is born to a farming community called Wellingara Village in The Gambia. He was among the lucky children of farmers with the opportunity to be educated.
Upon completion of his High School education in 2004, he realized that the ever increasing livestock theft has affected farmers and even forced them to sell the herds.
With the determination for a change, he organized his fellow youths to combat against this problem by forming a small community based organization called the shepherd and livestock owners association which expands to be a national association called The National Livestock Owners Association in which he is the Secretary General.
Modou is also the national youth coordinator of the national coordinating organization for farmers association The Gambia (NACOFAG). Which is the national networking organization for all farmers associations in The Gambia.
In 2018, he was selected to participate in a yearlong leadership training program by the McCain Institute for International Leadership in the USA and specialized in farming.
Modou hopes to increase youth participation in the agricultural value chain of The Gambia for youth empowerment opportunities, economic development and national food security by establishing the first ever no till organic farm academy that will train, support and motivate youth farmers in no-till farming.
Interview Highlights:
Modou shares his background, giving some background on his agricultural work in The Gambia
Modou discusses his experience with Singing Frogs Farm, no till farming, and it’s implications for climate change and the conditions for farming in The Gambia
Modou shares his insights for what he believes is most needed for the people and the land in The Gambia
Links:
https://www.gofundme.com/support-next-generation-farmers-in-the-gambia/
https://www.mccaininstitute.org/next-generation-leaders/modou-sowe/
https://www.mccaininstitute.org/podcast/in-the-arena-episode-29-modou-sowe/
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Join the growing network of nearly 250+ alumni who have learned essential skills, increased their confidence in Next Economy business fundamentals, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.
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Birgit Cameron: Patagonia Provisions' Pioneers Regenerative Organic Food
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Birgit Cameron is Managing Director at Patagonia Provisions, a division of Patagonia Works, based in Sausalito, California. In 2012, she launched Patagonia Provisions with Yvon Chouinard, the founder/owner of Patagonia, and Patagonia’s CEO, Rose Marcario. The company was created as a way to broaden Patagonia’s environmental mission by partnering with forward-thinking farmers, ranchers and fisherman and offering a variety of regeneratively sourced organic food.
Over the past six years, she has introduced a varied line of mission-based food products intended to address critical environmental issues, while establishing a model to help restore the food chain. Patagonia Provisions has doubled its sales each year, as Birgit has rapidly expanded the company into national grocery and outdoor lifestyle chains and international markets. In addition, through Patagonia Provisions she has been a keen advocate, financial supporter and partner to a variety of noteworthy organizations who follow similar values and mission as the company: "we're in business to save our home planet". Her work with Patagonia Provisions has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek.
In 2016, Birgit produced “Unbroken Ground”, an award-winning documentary detailing the critical role food plays in solving the environmental crisis. Later that year, working closely with The Land Institute, she introduced Patagonia Provisions’ Long Root Ale, the first beer made with a new perennial grain called Kernza. In 2018, she worked, as a part of Patagonia’s efforts, to establish the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROC), a new high-bar organic certification that includes optimizing soil health to sequester more carbon, and values animals' and workers' welfare. Under Birgit’s leadership, Patagonia Provisions has become a recognized leader in the organic food movement.
Birgit lives in Marin County, CA with her husband and their two daughters.
Interview Highlights:
Birgit shares her background on how she came to lead Patagonia Provisions
Insight into how Patagonia Provisions vets its suppliers
A backstory on Patagonia Provisions’ beer, Long Root Ale, the first beer made with a new perennial grain called Kernza
A breakdown of what the regenerative-organic standard is and why it matters
What we can expect from Patagonia Provisions in the near future
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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.
Kelsey Ducheneaux: Resprouting Ancestral Seeds & Local Economies
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Kelsey Ducheneaux is a member of the Lakota Sioux Nation. Alongside her work as a beef cattle rancher on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, Ducheneaux is the youth programs coordinator and natural resource director of the Intertribal Agriculture Council, a national organization working to improve Indian Country.
Resources:
Intertribal Agriculture Council – Youth
Native Youth Food Sovereignty Alliance
Organic reach: Food sovereignty moves to the web
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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.
Darrie Ganzhorn: Transforming Land & Lives at Homeless Garden Project
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Darrie Ganzhorn is the executive director of Santa Cruz’s Homeless Garden Project, an incredible nonprofit that provides job training, transitional employment and support services to those in need on an organic farm and garden. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Ganzhorn studied marine biology at UC Berkeley. She worked at the Hopkins Marine Station after graduation, but when her son was born, she had an epiphany. “I didn’t want to do research anymore. I wanted to do something based on human needs. I wanted to do something that was more basic and vital,” Ganzhorn said in her interview. She found meaningful work at the Homeless Garden Project, where she interned in 1991 when she began working one-on-one with Project trainees, not long after the Project was started by UCSC philosophy professor and social visionary Paul Lee. Darrie has held various positions at the Homeless Garden Project evolved. She provides a multi-year perspective on the development of this internationally known organization.
Resources:
Shop around in HGP's Online Store
Growing Hope, part 1 & Growing Hope, part 2 (This thirty minute video, narrated by Harrison Ford was filmed in 1996 and shows the beginnings of the homeless garden project. DVD available here.)
Book: Unearthing Seeds of Fire: The Idea of Highlander
HGP Blog Post: Here, Amongst the Flowers and Vegetables
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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Kevin Bayuk, Co-founder and Partner at LIFT Economy, works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute. You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.
Gretchen Grani: Guayaki's Authentic Invitation to Come to Life
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Regeneration & Sustainability Cebadora at Guayaki, Gretchen Grani has directed corporate sustainability and philanthropy for 2 natural products companies. Prior experience includes managing an environmental conservation nonprofit and serving on numerous nonprofit boards, environmental consulting, writing about ecopsychology, and volunteering at a St. Helena winery for 15 years. Gretchen is an advocate for personal regeneration and regenerative business as a solution to reversing climate change and solving the world’s biggest social and environmental problems.
Resources:
https://www.climatecollaborative.com/
https://mamuse.bandcamp.com/track/we-shall-be-known-featuring-thrive-choir
LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Neelam Sharma: The Black Panther Party, Food Justice, and Self-Reliant Communities
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Our guest today is Neelam Sharma, Executive Director of Community Services Unlimited (or CSU), which is a non-profit organization based in South Los Angeles, CA.
CSU was founded in the 1970’s by the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party. CSU’s mission is to foster the creation of communities actively working to address the inequalities and systemic barriers that make sustainable communities and self-reliant life-styles unattainable.
In Ryan Honeyman's interview with Neelam, they discuss a variety of topics, including:
Neelam’s upbringing in India and in London
Her early involvement with activism and her work cofounding a chapter of the Black Panther Party in London in the 1980s
Her visit to CSU in the mid 1990s and eventual move to Southern California
CSU’s latest project launching the Village Market Place, a social enterprise that was designed to complement their education and training programs, and meet the growing demand for good (affordable, beyond organic, culturally appropriate, exploitation free) food in South Los Angeles.
For folks who are interested in learning more, please visit www.csuinc.org to check out the amazing work CSU is doing in South Los Angeles. You can also follow CSU on Twitter, @CSUINCLA.
LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.
Keba Konte: Red Bay’s #BlackCoffee
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Now rooted in Oakland, CA, Keba Armand Konte was born and raised in San Francisco. He is an artist, food entrepreneur and man of the community. His artwork has been published widely and exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. He is the co-founder of Guerilla Cafe, the founder of Chasing Lions Cafe and the Founder/Roaster for Red Bay Coffee – an investee of LIFT Economy’s Force For Good Fund. In his spare time he enjoys aquaponic gardening, judo and making vegan waffles for his family.
Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Keba include:
Keba illustrates his colorful journey from the heyday of Haight-Ashbury in SF to his first career choice as a photographer – notable works from the 90’s independent hip hop scene: Boots Riley & The Coup, E-40, Master P, Too Short, 2-Pac, etc, with spreads in magazines like Rolling Stone, The Source, etc – transitioning in the early 2000’s to a career as a critically-acclaimed visual artist with unique documentary-style pieces & installation, conceptual, and interactive art (see Resources below to see Keba’s photography & art) which ultimately led Keba to co-found Guerilla Cafe as a hub for culture, art, and coffee vibes.
Keba shares how he’s always been very intentional about the political implications of where he spent his money, a values-driven skillset that transferred to business decisions which enabled him to support black/POC entrepreneurs & provide livelihoods to youth
Keba’s coffee enterprising began with Guerilla Cafe – which held the first wholesale coffee shop account for Blue Bottle Coffee. Building from that success, Keba founded Chasing Lions Cafe and by structuring it to work so he would not work in the business so that he could work on the the business, he carved out the space he needed to cultivate the craft of roasting in his “Coffee Dojo,” finally launching Red Bay Coffee in 2014
How the often normalized systemic racism of Starbucks culture recently captured on video has brought attention to the merit, meaning, and unique value proposition of the Red Bay Coffee model, resulting in a rapid increase in demand for Red Bay Coffee shops nationwide at a time when Red Bay is already ramping up for expansion (stay tuned for new locations in LA & Philly)
Resources:
Can specialty coffee be about more than fastidious white hipsters?
Oakland’s Red Bay Coffee Expands Production, Teaches Farmers to Roast
Keba Konte to Debut '888 Pieces of We' Photo Exhibit at Oakland Art Gallery
Keba Konte Discography Photographer Profile (62 Albums, 1993-2014)
Forget Wealth And Neighborhood. The Racial Income Gap Persists
The roots of fashion and spirituality in Senegal’s Islamic brotherhood, the Baye Fall
Videos/Audio:
African American owned coffee shop looks to become next Starbucks with a different philosophy
Design Talk | Growing Local: Designing Sustainable Food Businesses
Aniyia Williams & Keba Konte: Keba Konte: Coffee with Soul & Aniyia Williams & Keba Konte: Q&A
Urban Organic Episode 1 - OAK: Aquaponic gardening with Bryant Terry, Keba Konte and Eric Maundu
Books:
Terminology:
People:
Organizations:
LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.
Arjan Stephens: Cereal Entrepreneurs Leave Soil Better Than They Found It
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Arjan Stephens serves as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Nature's Path. Arjan was named one of Business in Vancouver’s ‘Top 40 under 40’ in 2012. He’s the second generation of the Nature’s Path organic foods company, a business he says was “founded on a hope and a dream and a $1,500 loan”, and is still driven by those same values 30 years later, now it’s turning over $300m a year and selling into over 50 countries. One of Arjan’s main purposes is to move the world away from zombie-like consumerism and encourage consciousness, especially with food. He believes our forks and wallets are the most powerful tools for change, and organic agriculture is the catalyst that will transform the world for the better. Arjan received his bachelor’s degree in History from Queen’s University and an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Some highlights from Kevin’s interview with Arjan include:
How Nature’s Path integrates their values throughout their supply stream, supporting over 120,000 acres of organic production internationally and sourcing local where feasible
Understanding that the organization is not just there to serve the customer but to serve all who are part of the organization, Nature’s Path demonstrates their care for their people by offering great benefits and work environment that includes spaces to garden or meditate
Nature’s Path recently met their goal to become Zero waste certified in all facilities (only cereal company to do this)
An example of “corporate venturing,” the Seed to Sprout program at Nature’s Path has invested in three organic food companies to support entrepreneurs
Arjan shares his thoughts on going beyond organic farming toward regenerative organic farming
Resources:
Videos:
Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis: Nature's Path with Arjan Stephens.
How we leave the Earth is our collective legacy | Arran Stephens | TEDxUW
Ted Talk: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA | Ron Finley
People:
Organizations
LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Kevin Bayuk works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is a co-founder and partner with LIFT Economy, the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute. You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.
Ahmed Rahim: Steeped in the Spirit of Hospitality at Numi Tea
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Ahmed Rahim is Founder of Numi Inc. and serving as CEO and Chief Alchemist. Before starting Numi in 1999 with his sister, Reem, Ahmed lived & worked in Europe for ten years. In the early part of the 1990's, Ahmed lived in Paris working as a professional photographer focusing on architecture and fashion, with works published in international trade and fashion journals including Elle, Prague Post, and Velvet. He spent nearly two years photographing the Middle East in places such as Iraq and Morocco. Ahmed eventually returned to Europe, this time ending up in the German Alps, continuing his photography in the music scene there where he performed as well. After a year Ahmed relocated to Prague, spending the next six and a half years there in filmmaking and photography. Towards the end of his stay in Prague, Ahmed was asked to help create and design teahouses. He then became a partner in a teahouse helping to expand and grow the business, and developed a deep love and interest in teas culminating in the creation of Numi's unique blends. Numi pioneered the introduction of teas such as Rooibos (red tea), Lemon Myrtle, Honeybush, Dry Desert Lime and others that were popular in Europe, but completely unknown in the United States. Ahmed is fluent in English, Arabic, French, German and Czech. He studied BA in Psychology and Theatre, from New York University, and has studied Film at various universities in Prague and in Paris.
Some highlights from Kevin’s interview with Ahmed include:
The story of how Numi differentiated itself from a seemingly saturated market by offering the purity of real ingredients and replicating success from other bioregions, introducing teas that had experienced success in European markets
Ahmed describes Numi’s core operating principles and how they result in beneficial social and ecological impact that scales as the company grows
Numi’s foundation and their work creating Waldorf-inspired schools in Oakland, supporting local nonprofits, and advancing clean water and other beneficial impacts internationally
Ahmed’s coalition building that brings together leaders in the sustainable food world to collaborate and create a larger beneficial impact
Resources:
Videos:
The Story of One Treasure, Found in the Basement (Part 1): Ahmed Rahim, CEO of Numi Tea
Ahmed Rahim, Co-founder & CEO of Numi Tea brews success, at launch of ImpactMap
Ahmed Rahim : Numi Organic Tea + Oakland Digital : Inspiration Awards
Terminology:
Events:
Organizations
LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Kevin Bayuk works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is a co-founder and partner with LIFT Economy, the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute. You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.
Mary Waldner: Holding On To Your Vision Even When VC’s Make You Go Crackers
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Mary Waldner holds a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She practiced as a psychotherapist for 26 years, helping others to manifest their truest selves so they could live full, happy lives. But when Mary was 43, a chiropractor figured out she had celiac disease. After cutting out all gluten, she was happier and more energetic than she’d ever felt.
To make her dietary transition easier, Mary began baking gluten-free goodies so she’d never feel deprived. They had to be organic and gluten free, but if they didn’t taste indulgent, that was a deal-breaker. Along the way, she realized my crackers also fed people’s hunger for something authentic and truthful in this processed and fortified world, so along with Dale Rodrigues, she co-founded Mary's Gone Crackers in 1994. Mary is a Member of the Organic Trade Association and the Celiac Sprue Association.
Some highlights from Kevin’s interview with Mary include:
Mary’s tragic experience learning the hard way battling deceptive investors that stifled the vision and wanted to liquidate the value of the company’s essence, yet Mary stuck it out and eventually triumphed
Mary shares challenges with maintaining the impact of the business while feeling the growing pains of scaling so rapidly
Mary advocates strongly for worker ownership and for weaving in similar considerations at the outset of a business before investors can preclude those possibilities
Mary underscores the value of knowing your market, while thinking what or who we want to be in service to and trusting our own intuition when anticipating people’s needs and what might be value to them
Resources
Videos:
Mary Waldner and Dale Rodrigues, Mary's Gone Crackers "Keeping Your Vision and Shareholder Rotation"
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Kevin Bayuk works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is a co-founder and partner with LIFT Economy, the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute. LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.
Sara Day Evans: Making America Regenerative Again
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Next Economy MBA
The Next Economy MBA is a nine month project-based learning course for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from a regenerative, Next Economy perspective.
Sara Day Evans, Founding Director for Accelerating Appalachia and Co-Founder of Prosperity Collective, is a sixth generation Kentuckian, and has worked with communities and small businesses across the southeast for over 20 years. She’s served over 300 communities and small businesses in economic development, entrepreneurship and environmental protection and leveraged over $250M in funding in service to the southeast and Appalachian region. She was awarded a presidential commendation from Bill Clinton for her work in the health and livelihood of women living in Appalachian Kentucky through her clean water efforts.
With degrees in Geology/Hydrogeology and a background in water law, she was instrumental in developing Kentucky’s groundwater protection programs and later developed Kentucky’s first ongoing solid waste management fund, resulting in an 85% reduction in illegal dumping and a 25% increase in recycling. She served western North Carolina’s hardest hit counties by developing sustainable economy plans that fit with the people and place of the region and created North Carolina’s Green Economy Resources Directory.
She’s particularly proud of the program she developed and implemented to install clean energy systems on farms in western NC’s high-unemployment counties while also training high school and community college students in clean energy installation. In 2011, Sara Day co-founded the social enterprise Prosperity Collective and inspired by the textile, farming, forest products skills of Appalachians, the expanding world of social entrepreneurs and investing for good, she launched Accelerating Appalachia in 2012 to serve nature-based businesses in Appalachia and beyond.
For most of her life, Sara Day has been a singer/songwriter and guitarist, performing and also producing exceptional house concerts for good causes. Her most profound influencers are her parents, her children and her lifelong friends, Wendell and Mary Berry.
Some highlights from Erin’s interview with Sara include:
How Accelerating Appalachia approaches accelerating the regenerative economy by connecting “basic needs businesses” and by bridging the urban-rural divide
Leveraging the strategy of supporting businesses who are the customers of farmers to apply more regenerative business practices in order to more exponentially incentivize farmers to adopt more regenerative farming practices (ie: via generating a greater demand for regenerative sourcing to influence regenerative farming)
How conservation practices/policies without applying proactive regenerative practices/policies is insufficient to meet our current climate crisis
A description of a smattering of some of the lovely enterprises Accelerating Appalachia works with in food, fiber, and other nature-based enterprises (see “Organizations” below)
Resources:
Videos:
Terminology:
People:
Organizations
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Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.
Frederick Schilling: Holding It Down for Smallholder Farmers at Big Tree Farms
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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**Special Announcement:
Next Economy MBA
The Next Economy MBA is a nine month project-based learning course for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from a regenerative, Next Economy perspective.
Frederick Schilling founded Dagoba Organic Chocolate in 2001 and sold to The Hershey Company in 2006. He currently serves as partner/co-ceo of Big Tree Farms, a sustainable/organic supply chain company based in Indonesia. They develop supply chains for value added exotic and premium commodities/ingredients that are sold into the international organic/natural/specialty markets.
Big Tree Farms’ products include: coconut palm sugar, cacao/chocolate, coconut water concentrate, exotic peppercorns, Balinese sea salt, exotic & rare honeys, cashews, moringa and other ingredients for the raw food market. In 2007, he co-founded AMMA, with Diego Badaro and Luiza Olivetto, a vertically integrated artisan chocolate company located in Salvador, Brazil; the first premium artisan chocolate company in Brazil that is fully integrated from farm to finished product. While primarily focused on the South American market, the specialty chocolate products will be available to the international market. AMMA Chocolate was voted “Product of the Year” by O Estado Sao Paulo, in Brazil, for 2010 and have won numerous awards since then.
Frederick was founder/CEO of Big Tree Climate Fund, which he has since decommissioned during the recession of 2008. BTCF was a carbon sequestration project developer and marketer of Fair Carbon™; holistic carbon credits that balance social & environmental aspects of carbon market project development. The projects that BTCF developed generated greenhouse gas emission reduction credits, which we sold into the voluntary emission offset market in the US, Europe, Indonesia and Brazil, to businesses or individuals. The revenue generated from the selling of these credits was used to further the development of other projects, while 10% was given to the Big Tree Community Fund, which went to the communities in the zones where our projects existed.
Some highlights from Kevin’s interview with Frederick include:
Overcoming perception of business as the root of all evil to realizing it can be used as a force for good
The rippling beneficial impact of empowering women through supply stream decisions
Big Tree Farm’s voluntary choice to steer clear of harmful agrochemicals prioritize their environmental and social mission along with their economic goals
How Frederick finds a sense of fun in viewing business as a puzzle
Resources:
Videos:
Bali'2016 · How It's Made Chocolate in Big Tree Farms Factory
Interview with Ben of Big Tree Farms® | Coconut Sugar and More | The Healthy Grocery Girl® Show
Books:
People:
Organizations
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Kevin Bayuk works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is a co-founder and partner with LIFT Economy, the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute. LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.
Karlene Hunter & Mark Tilsen: How Tanka Bar is Restoring Indiginous Land, Livelihoods, and Culture
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Cofounded by CEO Karlene Hunter and President Mark Tilsen, Native American Natural Foods is based on Pine Ridge Reservation in Kyle, South Dakota (Oglala Lakota County). The company's line of Tanka products is based on the traditional Lakota recipe that powered Lakota Sioux warriors for centuries. The company's first product, launched in 2007, Tanka Bar, was the first snack bar to combine meat and fruit for the national market. The company was created to help combat obesity and diabetes on the reservation and to provide opportunities for employment and economic development in the Native American community. Additionally, proceeds from the company's products support the Tanka Fund, which is helping to return buffalo to the land, lives, and economies of Indian people.
A member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Karlene Hunter has an MBA from Oglala Lakota College and over 25 years of experience in educational and economic development on Pine Ridge. Over $25 million has been raised under her leadership – including raising the funds for the establishment of the first library on the reservation and the creation of new college centers in each of the nine districts on Pine Ridge. The recipient of numerous awards, she serves on the Board of Directors of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development and previously served on the Board of Directors for the Native American Rights Fund, the National Indian Business Association, and the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce.
Also a recipient of numerous awards, Mark Tilsen has over 25 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising, marketing community development, and 18 years in special events marketing and productions. A lifelong supporter of Native American causes, he began working as a volunteer in 1973 for the Wounded Knee Defense Offense Committee (cofounded by his parents) and has since honed his skills coordinating award-winning, database-driven direct marketing campaigns for Native American educational and environmental organizations. A serial social entrepreneur, Mark Tilsen has co-founded several successful community organizations and businesses, including:
KILI Radio, the largest indigenous community-owned radio station in North America.
The Black Hills Alliance. a coalition of Native and non-Native Americans that had a major impact on changing the environmental policies and practices in the Black Hills.
Direct Expressions, the company that launched the first direct marketing campaigns for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and Oglala Lakota College.
Direct Events, now the largest independent music promotions group in Austin, Texas.
Manager of Indigenous, the first Native American musical group to have a Top 10 hit on radio since the '70s.
Lakotamall.com, a web portal providing Internet market access to small businesses and non-profit organizations serving Indian Country.
Lakota Express Inc., the only reservation-based Native American-owned direct marketing firm in the nation.
Maz, Inc., a talent management group based in Minnesota.
Some highlights from Erin’s interview with Karlene & Mark include:
How a Lakota “give-away” celebration launched Tanka Bar into a national company
The creativity and resilience of the Lakota people at Pine Ridge Reservation – despite the unyielding systematic oppression and exclusion from economic opportunity informing their current status among the top 3 poorest counties in the U.S (an unemployment rate of ~70% and ~$5600/year average per capita income)
The ecological benefits of buffalo on the land & how prairies are one of the largest carbon sinks in the world (apart from rainforests and oceans)
The transformative impact of Native American Natural Foods/Tanka Bar: simultaneously regenerating an endangered species, regenerating the prairieland of America’s Great Plains, and regenerating Lakota culture and economy
How Native American Natural Foods/Tanka Bar is the first enterprise in history to restore an endangered species through entrepreneurship, now with almost half a million buffalo in the lower 48 states today
How the company is struggling to maintain their position in a category they created, the cultural appropriation that’s involved in that struggle, and the importance of supporting and sharing the authentic, transparent story behind the Tanka Bar brand
Resources:
Tanka Bar – (WEFUNDER: INVEST IN NATIVE AMERICAN NATURAL FOODS)
Tanka Bar in American Indian Foods (Explanation of Trademark)
VIDEOS:
Native American Natural Foods US Senate Testimony - Mark Tilsen: Part 1 & Part 2
"Vet Your Investors for Culture and Values" - Karlene Hunter, CEO, Native American Natural Foods
You can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.
Help these ideas reach more ears by clicking HERE to rate Next Economy Now on iTunes & by sharing on social media.
Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.
Tyler Gage: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Tyler Gage is an entrepreneur, author and speaker who uses wisdom from the Amazon and startup success to bring innovation and inspiration to growing organizations.
Tyler has spent the last 12 years studying with indigenous elders in the Amazon rainforest, venturing far from his suburban roots at the age of 20. After graduating from Brown University, Tyler turned down a Fulbright grant to start RUNA, a social enterprise that makes energizing beverages with guayusa (pronounced gwhy-you-suh), a rare Amazonian leaf, and improves livelihoods for 3,000 indigenous farming families in Ecuador. With over 70 employees and 15,000 stores selling RUNA beverages in the US and Canada, RUNA has grown to be one of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the US according to Inc Magazine.
Tyler was named a Forbes “30 Under 30 Entrepreneur” and winner of both the Big Apple Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Specialty Food Association's Citizen Leader of the Year Award. ABC Nightline, National Geographic and Richard Branson's book Screw Business as Usual have all featured Tyler for his unique and powerful approach to building businesses and creating social good.
Tyler also serves on the Board of Directors of DavidsTea (NASDAQ: DTEA) and on the Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship at Brown University. In addition to advising and investing in other startups, Tyler is a cofounding partner and strategic advisor to NAKU, a pioneering indigenous healing center in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Tyler lives in Bellingham, Washington with his wife Michelle and enjoys boxing, yoga, riding his unicycle and studying ethnobotany.
Some highlights from Shawn’s interview with Tyler include:
Tyler’s liberal arts approach to business and use of the culture around guayusa to inform RUNA’s business model
The strategic reasons behind the tandem for-profit and nonprofit approach that enables RUNA to not perpetuate harmful dynamics of past business (ie: United Fruit Company)
Tyler discusses his new book – Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life
The power and importance of embedding the organization's beneficial impact in the structural DNA and core operations of the business rather than tacking programs onto the business
How inspired Tyler feels about organizations like Tanka Bar and Kara Solar (see Resources section below)
Resources:
ORGANIZATIONS:
Tanka Bar – (WEFUNDER: INVEST IN NATIVE AMERICAN NATURAL FOODS)
Kara Solar – (Video)
BOOKS:
Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life
Jump Start Your Business Brain: The Scientific Way to Make More Money (“Dramatic Difference”)
You can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.
Help these ideas reach more ears by clicking HERE to rate Next Economy Now on iTunes & by sharing on social media.
Shawn Berry is a Partner at LIFT Economy, where he works as an organizational strategist inspired to harness the power of business to create resilient local economies as patterns to be documented, open sourced, scaled globally and adapted regionally. LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Shawn on Twitter @sd_berry or email him shawn@lifteconomy.com.
Sheryl O’Loughlin: How to Grow Your Business Without Losing Your Heart
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Sheryl O’Loughlin is a serial entrepreneur and author of Killing It! An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart (Harper Collins, December 2016). She has served as the CEO of Clif Bar, where she led the concept development and introduction of Luna Bar. In Sheryl’s three years as CEO, the company revenue doubled from $100M to $200M. She then went on to co-found and serve as CEO of Plum Organics. Plum was sold in 2013 to The Campbell Soup Company. She was the Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Sheryl is currently CEO of REBBL, a fast-growing maker of super herb beverages.
Some highlights from our interview include:
What it was like moving from working at large multinationals (like Kraft and Quaker Oats), to joining Clif Bar in 1998
How she helped Clif Bar launch the Luna Bar, and how Sheryl eventually became CEO of Clif Bar
How she co-founded Plum Organics with Neil Grimmer
Sheryl’s advice for entrepreneurs when they are considering raising money (and a story of what it looks like when you bring on bad investors)
We also talk about her latest projects, including REBBL and the company’s mission to abolish modern day slavery
Sheryl shares her struggle to overcome an eating disorder
And finally, we discuss Sheryl’s book “Killing It,” and how entrepreneurs can launch and grow their business while maintaining their well-being.
Resources:
BOOKS
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
The Hero's Journey – Joseph Campbell
The Power of Myth – Joseph Campbell
FILM:
In addition to listening on B the Change Media, you can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.
Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.
George Siemon: How Organic Valley Became a $1B, Mission-Driven Coop
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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One of the nation's foremost organic agriculture advocates for nearly two decades, George Siemon is best known for his leadership in organizing farmers and building market support for organic agriculture. In 1988, Siemon joined a group of family farmers in Wisconsin to found the Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools (CROPP). More commonly known by its brands Organic Valley and Organic Prairie, CROPP has grown to become the largest organic farming cooperative in North America.
Organic Valley producers promote sustainability by farming without antibiotics, synthetic hormones, or pesticides. Their livestock herds feed on pasture, preserving landscapes and biodiversity for future generations.
Under Siemon’s leadership, Organic Valley has been recognized widely for its business and farming innovations for over 20 years. A native of Florida, Siemon received his bachelor's degree in animal science from Colorado State University. Siemon and his family have owned and operated an organic farm since 1977
In our interview, we discuss things like:
How George got started in the “Back to the Land” movement in the 1970’s, and how he was one of the only people doing all-organic in the mid-1980s
Why Organic Valley is a producer cooperative, and how being a co-op benefits its farmer members
How George and the Organic Valley team have approached raising capital
The top 2-3 challenges that keep George up and night, and
How birdwatching can lead to being a successful CEO
Resources:
In addition to listening on B the Change Media, you can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.
Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.
Bren Smith: Restorative Ocean Farming/Fishing For the Next Economy
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Bren Smith, GreenWave Executive Director and owner of Thimble Island Ocean Farm, pioneered the development of restorative 3D ocean farming. A lifelong commercial fisherman, Smith has been called a “visionary” by Barton Seaver, Director of Harvard’s Healthy and Sustainable Food Program. Bren’s farming model is designed to restore ocean ecosystems, mitigate climate change, and create blue-green jobs for fishermen — while ensuring healthy, local food for communities. In 2015 he was awarded the Buckminster Fuller Prize for ecological design. In 2017, he was awarded the European Sustainia Award. In 2013, Smith was chosen as one of six “Ocean Heroes” by Oceana and Future of Fish’s “Ocean Entrepreneur” of the year. He is an Ashoka Fellow and Echoing Green Climate Fellow.
With 1 out of 3 breaths we take coming from ocean-based phytoplankton, Bren’s model of restorative ocean farming for growing affordable food and fueling job creation for farmers was recently named a “coming attraction” in Paul Hawken’s recent book, Drawdown, the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming.
In my interview with Bren, we discuss:
Why Seaweed is the most affordable food to grow, and thus the most affordable food to eat
What Bren calls “the Nail Salon model of the sea” - How anyone with access to $20K and a boat can grow a seaweed farm, and Bren’s vision of 10,000 new ocean farmers
How Google’s appetite for seaweed is growing, with help from Greenwave.org and the for-profit arm SeaGreens LLC
Why “open-source sustainable seaweed models” are so important and a recent study about how the 3-D ocean farming model has the potential to create a plethora of new jobs
A polyculture approach within our sea systems and social systems - how collaboration between businesses, policy-makers, and ecologists is essential for regenerating oceans
how in CA alone Bren has a list of over 100 farmers waiting to be trained by Greenwave in his model of restorative ocean farming
How listeners will soon be able to dig their teeth into Bren’s seaweed at places like Brooks Headley’s Superiority Burger in Manhattan, NYC
His upcoming trip to sail from NYC to Washington DC for the People’s Climate March (please consider donating to Greenwave’s gofundme campaign in the Resources section below!)
Resources:
In addition to listening on B the Change Media, you can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.
Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.