Back to Basics: Regenerative Farming and Biomimicry

I live in the heartland of America. Specifically about 150 miles from the geographic center of the US. Here the American Dream has sustained such growth that I often quip, “Corn fields are being replanted with fields of homes”. This is in fact one of the last places I would expect to see talks by the leaders of both the Biomimicry and Regenerative farming trends. It is this juxtaposition along with the regions long history that inspires me beyond news cycles.

All my life, I have dreamed of and taken pride in looking at the whole picture. Sustainable design, Transparency, and Organics are only the beginning. The 1.0. Regenerative farming both takes us back to “the way things used to be” while using modernity to restore habitats and feed people with balance and respect for all systems. This represents an evolved capitalist mindset where all related systems are nurtured for the greater good.

I also speak often about our educational system that teaches us all to specialize in a reductionist manner. In my view, and particularly over the last two decades, there have been less and less people able to step back and look at how everything is in fact related and or connected. I am inspired by these concepts that make the 2.0, a hopeful change in our collective understanding.

I have always had a gut feeling that all we need to do, is look more closely at the brilliance of nature. Nature always provides. Mimicking the biosphere instead of mining, isolating, and concentrating as it occurs in nature simply looks and feels, well natural! Janine Benyus of Biomimicry 3.8 and the Biomimicry Institute makes an eloquent and hopeful prediction in a recent GreenMoney Journal article:

“Over the next 25 years, I believe the “made” world will function more like the “born” one. The simple material palette (starting with carbon dioxide as a feedstock) used in our products will cycle upward like nutrients in a forest, constantly recouped and reincarnated into new products. Designs will travel the world instead of things, and thanks to additive manufacturing, nature’s elegant, modular, lightweight blueprints will be able to enliven those designs. We’ll eventually distribute everything, including energy generation, manufacturing, farming, and place-based learning. Our local ecosystems will teach us how to meet our needs with resilient grace, exhaling goodness to the watersheds beyond.

The ROI on biomimicry—the return on inspiration—will be an economy that creates conditions conducive to the long-term success of all species. We know it’s possible because it’s happening all day, every day right outside our doors. How do we make a world as lush and livable as a wildland? We meet our mentors, start emulating, and then count the positive cascade of benefits that we produce. Fitting in as a contributor is our natural next move. It’s what all successful species do.

As a species we begin learn at the earliest of age by mimicking what we see around us. We are simply surrounded by all of the answers! All we need to do is open our eyes and our hearts. Won’t you join us?